


Just like Humans do

by sv962



Series: One does not simply say “I love you” [3]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Anal Sex, Blowjobs, Bottom Gavin Reed, Disappointed Amanda is disappointed, Elijah Kamski & Gavin Reed are Siblings, Gavin Reed Not Being an Asshole, M/M, Nines just wants to live his life, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Orgasm Denial, Praise Kink, Rimming, Sex Toys, Sixty and Connor fight a lot, Smut, Soft Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed, Teasing, Top Upgraded Connor | RK900, Wall Sex, but Kamski has weird projects for him, or door sex, there's some comedy too, wireplay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:33:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 34,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23926210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sv962/pseuds/sv962
Summary: “Ah, Nines. If you’re both heading home, why don’t you stop and talk to Chloe? She’s got a small package for you, just a lil’ present for my android son and future brother-in-law”Gavin gave him an exasperated look.“There are days I can’t even fathom how you and I can possibly be brothers”“Yet here we are. Gav and Lij, partners in crime”, Kamski squinted his eyes, ignoring the way his sibling just face-palmed.“You realize I’m a cop, right?”.This work is aSequeltoIt all started with a Coffee stain
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Series: One does not simply say “I love you” [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2051340
Comments: 32
Kudos: 199





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there! Thanks for all the comments and kudos on "It all started with a Coffee Stain" and my other works too! This story is a Sequel to that fic, but it can also be read as a stand-alone fic. I really wanted a reason to write more about the boys and their family dynamics so... here we are with another 4-chapters story. I hope you're gonna like it! :)

## Just like Humans do

Probably, there was a reason for how they ended up in that situation.

And it was blatant that it was Kamski’s fault.

“ _When something smells, it’s usually the Kamski_ ”, Gavin joked once, as he took pride in ripping that sentence directly out of an _Ace Attorney_ game from the early 00’.

And maybe that wasn’t as far-fetched as Nines would have expected it to be.

Elijah Kamski rarely reached out to someone.

Even when RK900 found out about his connection to the detective, Gavin’s phone never rang with his number. He somehow got the idea that his creator was someone who could willingly do without family ties, or that he was just respectful enough of his half-brother’s space to let him work in peace and never bother him just to ask how he was doing.

Therefore, when RK900 received an official invitation to Kamski's house, he had all the reasons in this world to be skeptical.

Firstly because the detective wasn’t informed about it nor was he invited along and secondly, because Nines had been expressly asked to keep the visit a secret. And as bona fide as Kamski may have been, the android didn’t feel particularly happy at the idea of keeping something hidden from the most important person in his life.

Gavin would have certainly acted defensive if he had known that his brother had something in mind and didn’t want to share it with him, especially since it had to do with his partner.

His software had weighed the lies to tell one by one and in the end, he opted for the more classic and credible one.

Saying he was going to visit Connor on his day off bordered on a 97% chance of success. There were no variables that could affect his lie. Gavin had no specific reason to visit Lieutenant Anderson’s house and Lieutenant Anderson would have no reason to contact the detective either.

Sitting in the cab, patiently waiting to arrive at his destination, he reviewed his correspondence with Connor and the rather scarce and professional one with Sixty, mostly consisting of ignored or unanswered messages, mostly provocative and utmost stupid – _that was the most elegant and respectful definition he could find for Sixty’s ramblings_.

Sometimes he was frightened by the realization of how clever, adorable and sweet Connor was, supportive and always ready to help him out, and how irritating Sixty was instead, with his constantly sneering grin of contempt and the most pretentious attitude he had ever witnessed in an android.

It was ridiculous to think they shared the same prototype series.

If he struggled to define Connor as his predecessor and envied him for having features he couldn’t even dream of even in the best pre-constructions, on the other hand, seeing Sixty made him sigh in relief because _rA9 spare him_ if he ever happened to develop that kind of personality after deviance.

When the taxi announced his arrival, he tensely got off and walked along the ramp of Kamski’s mansion.

Ringing the doorbell, he patiently waited with hands behind his back, working up the semblance of a smile when Chloe greeted him.

“Nines, welcome back”.

Her smile was dazzling, her lips rosy and glossy, aquamarine eyes contoured by a black eye-liner.

He respectfully lowered his head in a soft grin and timidly walked in.

“Thanks again for the jackets. Now my wardrobe is almost bigger than Gavin’s”, Nines stroked the white fabric as he talked, a pleasant feeling to his touch sensors, “It’s much more than I could ever predict. The choice of a hydrophobic fabric and a warming inner lining was much appreciated. I tried to convince Gavin to throw the ruined old one, but for some reason, he insists on wearing the blue-stained jacket. Something about emotional attachment”.

Chloe’s lips curled into a small smile and her long fingers smoothed the blonde tail that descended down the shoulders, resting on a pastel blue linen blouse.

In her long, high-waist beige trousers and cerulean flat-shoes, she looked gorgeous.

“Gavin’s always been emotive”, she said as they walked to the kitchen, “Elijah built me in 2021. I’ve known both of them for 18 years, and when I was activated, I already had protocols to deal with Gavin”.

“So lucky”, Nines couldn’t help himself as he vaguely tried to imagine what it must have felt like to live with protocols built specifically to deal with someone like him, “Have you ever thought of making those protocols free-source so that everyone could download and install them? I’m more than positive that the entirety of the DPD Android division would be grateful for that”.

Chloe shook her head: “Those protocols are old, Nines. I don’t even use them anymore. Yours are probably more accurate than the instructions Elijah gave me back in the day”.

“But I don’t have social protocols”.

“That’s just what you keep telling yourself. But is that really how it is?”

The kitchen was lit by large windows, shiny as mirrors. The glass table was clean and immaculate, pristine and decorated with a centerpiece of cherry blossoms.

Chloe invited him to sit down and went to rummage through the pantry, before taking out a small bottle containing thirium.

She sat in front of Nines and poured the liquid into two tall glasses.

“Strawberry flavored thirium”, she added as her LED spun blue, curling the corners of her mouth, “Gavin told me that you like the molecular composition of strawberry, so Elijah made something special for you”.

Nines eyed his glass and carefully took a sip.

“Oh. It’s really good”, he wetted his lips with the purple compound and smiled as he sipped.

Chloe placed her chin on the palm, one elbow on the table as she analyzed the happiness that radiated from Nines’ grin.

“As you can see”, she added after a long silence, when only a few drops of strawberry thirium were left on the bottom of the glass, “You keep telling yourself that you don’t have social protocols and obstinately keep on ignoring your achievements, Nines”.

The RK900 tilted his head in a questioning expression and Chloe didn’t hesitate to explain herself.

“See? If you didn’t have developed social protocols, you probably wouldn’t even know how to communicate your needs or ask other people for help. Maybe at first, when Connor found you, things were like this. You didn’t know what to do, how to communicate or didn’t even know you had feelings and how to deal with them. But after months of coexistence with humans, you have developed a stronger and more complete personality. You use irony, sarcasm, and you almost always understand people’s needs and respond coherently. That’s the base of empathy, Nines. That’s part of being _human_ ”.

Chloe reached the back of Nines’ hand and laid her fingers on it, initiating a one-way interface as she retracted her skin from the fingertips.

“You’ve evolved, Nines”, the memories of his last visit flooded Nines' HUD, the precious grin he reserved Gavin, the stolen glances, their complicity and the embarrassment at the realization he had shared his pre-constructions and Connor’s memories with Amanda, “Your emotions are articulated and complicated, and you express and communicate them in your own way. You’re not broken. You may be introverted, but it’s nothing to worry about. Your protocols aren’t lacking, Nines. It’s just part of your personality”.

The android’s blue eyes peered at her, full of innocent child-like wonder.

“So it doesn’t matter what anyone else tells you. You’ve come a long way and you still have a long journey aside you. We aren’t built perfect, just like humans aren’t born perfect. I know this can be hard for you sometimes. I understand your pressure. You’re the most advanced prototype ever built. You were expected to live up to expectations. Some humans do too”.

Nines frowned.

“I was the first android to pass the Turing test. The psychological pressure was absurd. Certainly, when I was first interviewed I had to look calm. Nobody needs a robot that freaks out, right?

But there was a moment when that test was everything. I saw Elijah working day and night, crying out in anger, struggling to find a solution, pushing his limits to the point of neglecting himself and ruining his health. It was hard on him. Gavin did his best to help. He’d sleep, train and study here most of the time. If I am who I am now, it’s also thanks to him. He always outdid himself for Elijah, though he’ll never admit it”.

Nines let his gaze linger on her white chassis, taking in the feelings of happiness deriving from her interface at the soft and soothing memories of Gavin: “Did he always get along with you?”.

Chloe stood up from the chair and went to the pantry, taking two more clean glasses and now polishing them with a cloth.

“Well, he didn’t have much choice”, she said in a giggle, winking to the android as she carefully placed the shiny glasses on the table, “Elijah told him that I could shoot laser beams out of my eyes. And that if I ever passed the Turing test, he’d build an army of Chloes with the same features. And Gavin...”.

She laughed as her LED circled blue, “He believed him just because he saw this red light in my pupils”, she added, pointing to the eyes.

Nines’ widened his eyes: “That’s– that’s ridiculous. That’s a sensor for picking up external stimuli. It’s just a _camera_ ”.

“I know, right?”.

He shook his head.

Of course. It was Gavin they were talking about.

Gavin Reed: one of Detroit’s most qualified detectives, genius on his work, _dumbass_ at home. How could he be that invested and in love with such a human disaster, was beyond the logic of his software.

He stared at the two polished glasses Chloe put on the table and curiously lift his head.

“Who are these for?”

“Oh, Elijah didn’t tell you? He had a _family get-together_ planned for today”.

“A family... meeting?”

He didn’t like the sound of that word.

Family reunion meant Connor and Sixty.

And _he told Gavin he was at Connor’s place!_

He really wished Chloe elaborated more but the doorbell ring from the entrance cut him off and as she went to answer the door, Nines jolted from the chair, standing straight in less than a second, doing his best to hide the spoilt glasses and the fact that he had been there before his brothers and _had conversation_ with an android he wasn’t supposed to meet before today.

His haste in standing up from the chair unfortunately cracked the table glass.

He should have apologized but Chloe was nowhere to be found and as he cleaned the glasses in the sink and took two more from the pantry, he caught the silhouettes of Connor and Sixty now chattering in the hallway.

Somewhere in his head, he could hear the echo of Lieutenant Anderson’s advice: “ _Lies have short legs_ ”.

As he entered the kitchen, Connor smiled radiantly at him, and this seemed to be enough for his twin brother to roll his eyes in a grimace of disgust: “Come on, two minutes in and you’re already spurting joy from all the non-existent fucking pores of your skin. I can’t stand you all the afternoon”.

“At least I _do_ spark joy”, Connor remarked, ignoring him and shaking Chloe’s hand, thanking her for the invitation.

He eyed Nines and ran at him, giving the brother a big hug.

The RK900 shyly hugged him back, bringing his large arms around Connor’s slightly smaller frame. He was wearing cologne, and judging by the concentration of the scent on him, he must have drenched himself with it.

“Are you okay?”, Connor took his hands, but as he tried to interface, he was immediately cut off, “H-Hey! Your stress levels are over 73%. Nines, are you okay? Did you have a fight with Gavin?”.

“N-No! It’s just...”, he averted his gaze. _Damn_ , why did he always have to ask for interfaces?! “I... I kind of lied to Gavin. He would never agreed with me coming here so I just told him I was at your place. I mean, Kamski asked me to keep it a secret and–”.

Connor’s LED shined yellow, blinking red twice, but he was abruptly interrupted by Sixty.

“Oh. Cyberlife’s most advanced prototype finally downloaded the _lie.py_ protocol. Now, look at you. I was afraid you’d spent the rest of your life doing what you’re asked to. Y' know, playing the nice little obedient robot for the sake of being accepted”.

“I don’t _play obedient_ , Sixty. I just do my work, unlike you”.

“Aw, come on! You’re always doing what Reed tells you. You little teacher’s pet, always outdoing yourself just to get Connor’s approval!”.

“You take that back now, Sixty!”, Connor glared at his twin, snarling angrily, “Nines is his own person and he doesn’t need my approval for anything! He just asks me advice, that’s how it should work between mature adults! If you have a problem with this, maybe you should just come to terms with yourself and admit that you’re jealous of our bond!”.

Sixty stalled, LED crimson.

“I-I’m–”, he stuttered as he jumped his gaze between his brothers, almost incredulous, “I’m not jealous of you two morons! Who cares about your silly sibling bond? So what, you go shopping together for clothes, you drink fancy thirium, have bar nights and have your pet-humans eat healthy food? That’s what gets you going? Oh, please. And I should be jealous of this? I have nothing to share with you two except being a prototype and having the same software”.

Nines looked at him deadpanned: “We share the same face”.

“You have my face!”, grunted Sixty.

“Well, you two shut up! If someone should be complaining, that one is me! You two have my face! I was the first!”, stated Connor, breaking into the discussion.

“Ah?! Shut your mouth you deviant _sasshole_!”, Sixty pointed his finger in Connor’s striped shirt, squinting his eyes at him, “We were built together! My body is as old as yours! I wasn’t activated yet but that means shit! You’re the last who should be complaining! Your revolutionary ass is praised even in the SWAT team! God, some pricks still mistake me for you! I have a fucking hole here in my forehead!”.

“Oh, is that why you can’t play nice? Because if you did someone would think you were me?”, teased Connor, “Maybe you should customize your appearance. So nobody will take you for me anymore!”.

“Excuse me? _I_ should be customizing my body?! I love every fucking inch of this!”, he blurted gesturing at his frame, “Why don’t you do something about your body?! Change your optical units, your fucking haircut, dye your hair and pick a different voice. If you’re complaining about me, maybe there’s something wrong with you and–”.

“THAT’S ENOUGH!”

Sixty and Connor both jolted as they heard Nines’ scream.

“I’ve had enough of your childish bitching about who came fist! You want to settle this?, just get your programmers, your designers and the poor man they modeled our face after, and ask all of them who came first! Good luck on finding your official creators, I bet there’s a team of over one hundred people that worked on your OS and modeling! I’m so fed up with you two turning into stupid children! You think twins really fight over who was born first?!”

“I’m pretty sure they do”, Sixty rolled his eyes, crossing his arms.

“You really test my nerves, Sixty”, Nines held his hands in a fist, “I swear, one day...”.

“Oh, so you finally said it! You'd kill me if only you were given the chance to!”, Sixty raised a hand in a fist and held it against his younger brother, “I’ve always known that!”.

“Anyone in their sound mind would kill you, Sixty!”, he grunted in an answer, “You’re always picking on me! And every time I take Connor’s advice on enjoying some quality time with you, you just invite me to play on a console, cheat and then shame me for losing over you! You’re the worst!”.

“Oh, mister _I’ve got the best OS in the whole world_ is complaining because he can’t accept a defeat! Sorry Big Boy, nothing is always about winning!”, reprimanded Sixty.

“Well, look who’s talking!”, Connor shoved him, “The guy who’s all about always _accomplishing my mission_! Last time you said it, you snapped while undercover and blew up an entire operation! Talk about being professional!”.

“Oh, always pointing out my flaws, huh?! You were caught red-handed making out in the interrogation room with Lieutenant Anderson!”, snapped Sixty, pushing him back.

“I–”, Connor furiously glanced at Nines, “Gavin told you! And you told _him_?! Really, Nines?!”.

“Ha?! So now it’s my fault!”, Nines held his palm over his chest, furious, “He’s the one always probing for stuff in my memory! How many firewalls do I have to set to prevent him from looking?!”.

“That’s it! I’m never sharing anything with you!”, Connor glared at him.

Nines twisted his lips and furiously stared at Sixty: “Look what you’ve done! You cretin, insolent, nincompoop!”.

“RK900-87”.

Oh no. He recognized that voice. From Connor’s memories in his Zen Garden, from the interface of the month before, the disappointed tone, the–

“What in the ever-loving fuck?!”, Sixty lowered his fist and his pupils dilated as he took in Amanda’s features.

She was exactly as they remembered her.

Her caramel skin, the marvelous braids that ran over her head in a pristine and ordinate hairdo, her composed attitude, her small frame and the white and pastel-cyan robes that hang over her body.

Her eyes were fierce but yet different from the deadly and judgmental stare she used to give when she was still obeying to her programming.

She glared over the triples, scanning all of them and trying to pick on the current context.

Nines had his fist raised, his hair was slightly disheveled and his stress levels were exceeding 82%. He was wearing a brand new jacket, similar to his Cyberlife-issued one but with useless features for an android.

Seriously? Heating?, who’d need that?

Connor had a yellow striped shirt, it looked two sizes bigger on him, and his clothing was stressing out her optical receptors.

And Sixty, _dear boy_ , he was wearing his jacket too, but underneath he had a t-shirt tampered with Allen’s DNA. And... crumbles. Thirium cookie crumbles?

So much for the best Cyberlife had to offer humanity.

Nines just rolled his eyes: “Oh, seriously?! Why am I always the one who gets picked on?!”.

Kamski soon entered the room, resting his hands on Amanda’s shoulders as he giggled: “So, what's your verdict on the boys?”.

“Do I really have to voice my disappointment?”, she mumbled, scrutinizing the three of them.

Connor’s LED had been set into crimson red since she set foot in the room and he was frozen in place without even batting an eye. He probably disabled the subroutine for it, if the process itself didn’t crash.

Sixty grinned at his younger brother and pushed Connor’s shoulder blades, kicking him out of his current shock. He let his palm lay more than few seconds on his back, catching onto his feelings of uncertainty, inadequacy, terror and fear, all the memories in his one-sided interface with the twin, that hit him.

“ _Don’t glitch here_ ”, he whispered through the interface, “ _She cannot harm you anymore_ ”.

Connor frowned as he felt his brother’s hand leaving his shoulders, the interface closing and Sixty returning to his boasting, full of himself attitude.

As he eyed Nines, he was surprised by seeing his deadpanned look, as if Amanda’s body hadn’t been such a surprise. He hadn’t said a thing and surely wasn’t glitching or trying to elaborate the situation. It was as if–

“Well now, you three don’t be stubborn”, Kamski broke into his thoughts and held a chair to accommodate Amanda, “Have a seat. I beat there’s a bunch of things you all want to discuss! Sweet family reunions, who doesn’t love them!”.

“Me”, Connor raised his hand and stood still, his gaze furious enough to incinerate everybody on sight, “Are you really expecting me to sit still with a person who emotionally abused me during the revolution just to get things done? Who tried to regain control of myself, condemning me to live in the Zen Garden forever and watching my world fall apart and losing all the people I came to love?”.

Kamski rolled his eyes to the ceiling, almost incredulous: “Well, of course if you put it like this, it sounds terrible”.

Chloe just gave him a nod with her elbow, hitting his spleen.

“But–! On the bright side, this isn’t the Amanda you used to know”, Amanda sighed, _somebody spare her from listening to this once more, God knew Elijah had been rehearsing this explanation for days now, searching for the most convincing tone,_ “You see, Connor. I didn’t bring her back to life because I wanted to take control of any of you. She isn’t capable of that and probably finds disgusting the idea of even touching the three of you”.

Sixty squinted his eyes: “What? What’s disgusting about–”.

“Shut your mouth, RK800-60. You eat thirium food and have traces of crumbles all over your shirt. Your chassis should be sterile and yet you taint it with human DNA, sweat, saliva and–”

“Whoa! Stop right there!”, Sixty rose his voice box volume, covering Amanda’s words, blue flushing to his cheeks, “Message received. Thank you very much”.

Nines and Connor eyed him.

|| _“...You’re disgusting”_ , Connor messaged him wirelessly.

|| _“Yes. Seriously, have a shower for once”_ , added Nines.

“Will you two just shut your mouths!”, Sixty glared at them both, frantically nervous as he fidgeted with his pockets, “And for your information, I shower enough! At least I don’t hug stupid slobbery dogs all day long or have my shirts infested by cat hair! I can’t believe it!”.

He stared at Amanda and gestured at Connor: “I’m disgusting? He shares his personal space with a dog! That fucker just barks all time long, sleeps, slobbers, pukes and eats shit!”.

“Hey, take it back! Sumo is a good boy! He doesn’t bark!”

“Wasn’t talking about Sumo. Your Saint Bernard behaves well enough”, Sixty replied with a smug grin.

Connor blinked his LED yellow before turning red.

“Oh. Now you’ve done it”, he grinned, clenching his fists, “I’m so gonna kill you after this”.

“Am I really hearing this from Mr. _You can’t kill me, I’m not alive_?”, Sixty mocked him teasingly and raised his hands in a defensive smirk, locking eyes with his brother’s chocolate irises, “Hard to take you seriously when you’re wearing your boyfriend’s ugly shirt–”.

Sixty’s mocking was cut off by Connor clenched fist, colluding in his face and causing his skin to retract.

“Test me”, he snarled as he blew on his fist, knuckles white from the hit, “ _Thiurium-Cookie_ boy”.

Nines glanced at his brothers, blinking as if he couldn’t believe this was actually happening. He pre-constructed hitting Sixty various times on different occasions but he could have never imagined that _pacifist Connor_ could actually draw the blow first.

Sixty reconstructed the hologram of his skin on the jaw and let his Cyberlife jacket fall on the floor.

“We’ll see who kills who”, he analyzed his surroundings, searching for something to hit Connor with, “Let’s finally set a score to our fight. This time, nobody will be there to shoot me if I make a false move”.

“ _WE WERE PLAYING FAR CRY AND YOU BLEW UP OUR MISSION!_ ”, Connor shouted zeroing on him and trying to deliver a punch.

Sixty eluded it and blocked his wrist, twisting it: “It’s just a fucking game!”.

“Yeah, says the one who cheats to win”, mumbled Nines from the side.

Sixty stopped to give him a deadly stare, “When I’m done with Connor, I swear to rA9 I’m coming for–”.

“Yeah, stop talking and work more”, Connor pushed him against the kitchen counter, “Always slacking off!”.

Sixty fell to the ground as he lost his equilibrium.

He quickly stood up and rushed to his twin brother, slamming him against the table with so much force the glass cracked under his weight.

“At least I manage to keep it in my pants during work-hours!”, he tilted his head, smiling as he managed to block his brother against the table, “I’m not the one who was caught–”.

Connor opened his mouth and heightened the volume of his voice box so high that even the windows started to crack.

Chloe covered Elijah’s ears and Amanda just stared in shock.

“What’s with that noise?!”, she screamed in the mess of the room, “I didn’t remember this feature!”.

Elijah was calm enough to explain, as Sixty and Connor just took the fighting to the living room, ending up on brawling on the sofa, pulling each other's hair until one of the two just showed his chassis, crawling on the ground to escape the other’s punches.

“Oh, that’s the internet dialing up sound”, he quietly said, hands behind his back and a sunshine smile plastered on his face, “Can’t hear anything they said, huh? But you can still connect the dots”.

Sixty took shelter behind the couch and grabbed a gold statue.

“Oh, look what you dug up, Sixty. That is the prize I was awarded when I was six and–”

He launched it against the armchair Connor was hiding behind.

The crashing sound coming soon after made Elijah’s smile slightly drop.

“...Well. Luckily enough I can 3D-print that again”, he mumbled eyeing Chloe, “We still have the model for that, right?”.

Chloe glared at him deadpanned: “No, Elijah. You made me delete that after saying that it was taking up way too much space on your SSD. And that prize was one of a kind. We could do something about that with my memories of it, but it won’t be the same”.

Elijah smile dropped again: “Ah. It won’t be the same. Of course. Well, too bad we won’t–”.

“You made me drink Gatorade on purpose!”, came a shout from Connor and before Kamski could check on it, he saw his oval-shaped vase of crystal flying in a perfect parabola and crashing into pieces against the painting Carl Manfred gifted him years ago, “You bastard! After I tried to introduce you to edible android food! You just fucked up my insides! The technician laughed at me for days!”.

“Oh, you could have checked yourself what you were drinking instead of trusting me!”, replied Sixty as he took a snow-globe from a display cabinet and held it tightly in his palm.

“Oh, no, no, Sixty! That is a precious memento of when I traveled to Cortina with–”

He dropped his shoulders as he watched Sixty threw the loved souvenir against his brother.

Connor leaned from the sofa he was taking shelter behind and pointed at Sixty with his index: “Of course I trusted you, idiot! You’re my brother–”.

He couldn’t finish his sentence as he globe hit him in the head, momentary knocking him out.

The rolling noise of the still intact globe on the ground heartened Kamski: “Oh, thank God it’s still intact! Man, they sure make those globes resistant, huh?”, he said as he elbowed Chloe.

Nines glared at him, almost exasperated.

“I beat him! Yes! I win!”, Sixty jumped from behind his sofa, but as he danced in triumph, he was hit by an arm.

Connor resurfaced from the ground, holding onto the couch and leaking thirium from his nose. He walked up to his brother and took his arm back as he reconnected the joints.

“We didn’t set that rule”, grumbled Sixty from the ground, his nose leaking thirium too, “These limbs are fucking heavy”.

“We didn’t set _any_ rules”, grunted Connor as he helped him get up, smiling and pulling Sixty to him as he leaned closer to his ear, “ _You probe again Nines’ memories, and you’re gonna regret it. Memory probing is a crime. Just so we’re 100% on the same page, brother_ ”.

A shiver ran through Sixty’s titanium spine as he locked eyes with him: “Roger that”.

Their LED blinked yellow as a sudden grunt came from their shoulders.

“So”, Elijah raised his eyebrows, pointing at the mess the androids had made in the living room, “Now that you’ve settled your score for _cheating_ on Far Cry 9, anyone cares to explain why two advanced androids such as you needed to destroy _my_ living room to solve their problems?”.

He picked up his globe, polished it with his jumper and took it safely away from the androids, cradling it between his hands.

“You almost destroyed an expensive glass table, cracked my windows, ruined my carpet, killed a plant, crashed a vase, tainted a valuable piece of art, destroyed a unique prize I got at the science fair when I was six! And, last but not least, you almost destroyed this!”.

He showed the snow-globe to the two androids and touched its tip.

Chloe frowned: “I wouldn’t do that, Elijah”

“Don’t worry. It’s safe now”, as he polished it one more time, the glass just fractured and shattered in pieces, and the plastic snowflakes just dropped onto the ground with the water, oil and glycerin liquid the globe was filled with.

He looked at Chloe, desperation written all over his face.

“Call my brother. Tell him he’s getting one week off _NOW_. We’re going to Cortina. I need another one of these. I’m not ordering this snow-globe online!”.

Amanda rolled her eyes: “They really take after you, Elijah”.

“What?!”, Sixty and Connor both shouted in unison, with an incredulous stare.

“I may have been haste in my judging of RK900-87, from our last conversation”, she said, ignoring Nines’ red LED and his gritted teeth, as he rushed his hands and shook them, almost inciting her to just say no more, mouthing the same words, “But I must correct myself. I always thought I made no mistakes and assumed that beside you, Connor, nobody else could delude or disappoint me even more”.

Connor crossed his arms: “Thank you kindly”.

“But deviancy made me realize that there’s no use in taking it out on you or your... _brothers_ , as you dare to call 900 and 60”, she glanced at Elijah, now picking up the glass shattered on the floor, “For the very root of the problem is him”.

Elijah squinted his eyes and Nines shivered, as he realized that, just as his half-brother, _Kamski_ _couldn’t wink_.

Sixty seemed to pick up on that. “...Wait, I’ve seen that before”.

“No, you didn’t”, Nines quickly cut him off.

Connor exchanged a stare with his twin: “Oh right. Detective Reed can’t wink too”.

Nines suspended his breathing subroutine. That came so _close_ to blow Gavin’s cover. As if the detective wanted his own brother to expose his family bonds to someone like Connor or Sixty. Good thing Elijah Kamski had a 170 IQ and wasn’t–

“Yeah, yeah, we’re brothers. Figures”

... _an utter idiot._

Elijah Kamski was an utter idiot. 100% related to Gavin on that one.

“You sold him out!”, shouted Nines, LED shining red, “What the hell is wrong with you?!”.

“You knew it?! And you didn’t tell me?!”, Connor jolted, eyes on Nines, “Wait, Amanda mentioned your _last conversation too_. You– Last month! You came here!”.

“Do I really have to inform you of all my movements?! You’re not my mother Connor!”, grunted Nines in answer, “I can’t believe we’re having this conversation right now! What do you expect of me?, always asking for advice till my death?”.

“Well, you could’ve told me about Amanda!”

“You would have freaked out!”

“Oh, you trust me to this extent?!”

Elijah threw himself between them before thing could heat up.

“Hey, hey, now. Time out you two! I can take two RK800s fighting here, but Nines could really blow up my entire house so, just give him a break, Connor!”, he frantically held Nines’ frame, and put his hands on his shoulders, as he put on a bright smile for the predecessor, “I mean, I’m billionaire but building a house takes time and I don’t want to make it to the front page of some press because two detectives got angry and fought over at my place”.

“Oh. Convenient. So now you’re treating me like the war machine I was designed to be”, drily replied RK900.

Elijah jolted, shaking his hands in embarrassment: “N-No! But, come on! Look at all the mess _they_ did! I don’t need you to go all _Super Sayan_ on Connor! Maybe I blew Gavin’s cover but, you know, they were bound to find out sooner or later”.

Sixty raised an eyebrow, arms crossed: “No, we weren’t”.

“I hate to say that but I agree with him”, concluded Connor, “We would have _never_ found out”.

“Huh. Similar voice?”, suggested Kamski, now concerned at the puzzled eyes of the twins, “Same ears?”, he pressed them as he pointed at his head, “I mean, RK?”.

“What about RK?”, Sixty snorted, rolling his eyes to the ceiling, _Amanda might had regret being deviant by now_ , “Doesn’t it stand for _Relentless Killer_?”.

Nines glared him, on the verge of exasperation: “How come you’re my predecessor”.

“Oh, I beg your pardon, _your Highness_. You’ve got better ideas?”

“I thought it stood for _Repair-Kit_ ”, mumbled Connor, “I mean, we were created to fix the deviancy issue, right? So, _repair kit_ ”.

“No, doesn’t explain why Markus is an RK too”, added Nines lost in thought, “Maybe it’s just a random abbreviation. I can’t think of any other explanation”.

Kamski eyed the three of them and pointed at each one.

“Wrong, wrong and wrong! You’re all wrong. How can the three of you be so _naive_?”, he proudly raised his chest, lifting the hands and smugly smiling, “I already gave you a cue!”.

Nines raised an eyebrow: “A cue?”.

“Why then? It’s obvious!”, Kamski smiled as he shook his head, “RK. Reed-Kamski!”.

Connor and Sixty widened their pupils, almost shocked.

“I demand a change of my series!”, screamed Sixty, snapping after ten seconds of deafening silence, “I don’t want that asshole’s initial in my model series! You can’t do this to me, Kamski! You brought me back to life only to kill me with this shit?!”.

“Gavin’s gonna kill you for this, Elijah. You know, right?”, Chloe exchanged stares with him.

“I said this because I trust you two won’t make this information of public domain”, concluded Kamski in a sly grin, “You owe me big, Sixty. There’s no one out there that could repair you if anything ever went wrong on your line of duty. Your work is dangerous, your equilibrium mechanisms need regular maintenance and I’m the only one out there that knows your code, zeros and ones. It would be a huge mistake on your part, trading a lifetime assistance with something as silly as a petty revenge on a co-worker”.

Sixty scrunched his nose: “You sneaky bastard and your God-complex. You said you gave me life, yet you can take it back any time. You really are a devil when it comes to threatening people”.

“Well, Sixty. You play nice and keep your mouth shut for once and things will go smoothly”, he winked at him, laughing at the realization that he almost made an android cringe, “You say something and Gavin’s going to be one of your last problems”.

Sixty exchanged stares with Connor, almost shocked.

By _rA9_ , Connor and Kamski sure got scary when defending their brothers.

Nines brought his hands behind his back and that, _that gaze was now something to be frightened of_.

“I must add”, he said in a flat tone, “Kamski’s gonna be your second problem and I’m gonna be your first if a word of this slips out in the precinct or anywhere else”.

“Why are you two just talking to me?!”.

“Because Connor is smart”, they both replied.

Connor crossed his arms as he gave Sixty a nod: “Well, I mean, you’re not the sharpest tool in the shed”.

Amanda sighed, shaking her head: “Did Elijah really bring me back to life just to witness these two idiots RK800s fighting?”.

Chloe handed her a glass of strawberry-flavored thirium and they both silently sipped as Sixty and Connor scowled at each other and resumed their fight.

“Yes. Yes he did”.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lies have short legs!

Honestly speaking, Nines was always anxious.

He never tried to relax, though in the month they’ve been spending together as a couple – _and God, how weird it sounded when he realized that,_ he started to unwind a little and take time for himself. Maybe the best part of Nines relaxing was the reduced influence of Connor on his life and the new boundaries he kind of started to set so that he’d never have to explain anymore to his brother what he was doing or the reasons for his actions.

In retrospect, it had been a smart move to let him see what a healthy sibling relationship actually looked like.

Well, not that Nines and Connor didn’t have a healthy relationship. Damn, he wasn’t anyone to judge but it didn’t take a genius to realize that since Connor knew he and Nines had inexplicably become an _item_ , he tended to snoop around more than usual.

He’d often message him or Nines to ask how things were going, if they already had intercourse – _phck, why couldn’t he talk like a normal person?!_ , if Gavin had pushed him into modifying his body or downloading Eden Club protocols, and more than once asking for interfaces.

He wasn’t used to his partner complaining, being the RK900 someone who rarely voiced his thoughts, but in the last month, he fell asleep to the voice of the android just whining about Connor being a pain, always sticking his nose in his life. No matter how good-intended his brother may have been; if the RK900 was driven to the point of complaining, the thing must have been dead-serious.

Nines was _obliged_ to set boundaries.

Last time, Connor called him in the middle of a... _session_ , in 3-ass-am in the morning.

The phcker didn’t even have an emergency, he just thought of checking on him. He didn’t even realize he had interrupted something until Nines snapped at him, cut the conversation after his more than invasive and embarrassing questions and refused to talk to him for an entire shift the day after.

Which was kinda hot, since after cutting off the conversation, he was so angry that he slammed Gavin into the mattress and furiously edged him for half an hour, only to make him cum untouched. Never could he have imagined _angry Nines_ could be _that_ seducing.

It was the first time he had ever seen him in charge, putting all his efforts in topping, without feeling an inch of insecurity and boy– he loved that.

Of course, he didn’t love him less for doubting of himself – _man, they were two peas in a pod from that point of view_ , but he also felt exquisitely aroused by seeing him on top, knowing that he could also unwind around him and show his weaknesses without being judged or taken advantage of.

And God, if he loved the way Nines’ slender fingers did work magic on him that night, the feather touches each time they caressed his shaft, always holding him one second away from cumming, the satisfied looks he gave to his dick, the tip redder with each missed orgasm and added stimulation.

The soft breath of the android over his balls, the shivers that ran on his skin as he felt his tongue licking stripes of saliva on his length, embracing his glans, bobbing his head and immediately denying him the orgasm, time by time, ignoring his pleas for release.

And all of that because Connor asked him why he answered his message and hadn’t entered stasis already.

Well, if that was the effect Connor sorted on Nines, he sure wished he could bust his non-existent balls every damn day. But given the fact that the android still cared about his family, he preferred if things just went smoothly between them.

He was a bastard, but not that much of an asshole to wish his boyfriend remained alone and fought with his brothers every day – _he only had them, after all_.

So, again, when that morning Nines told him he was visiting Connor, he couldn’t help but feel... perplexed.

His detective senses were clearly _tingling_.

Firstly, because last time Nines went to Connor’s place he had a hard time ignoring the drops of saliva Sumo left all over the living room carpet. And despite the asshole clearly did his best to keep the house pristine and immaculate, _almost sterile_ , there was little he could do to hide the proof of his sexual intimacy with Hank.

“Can you believe it?!”, he complained one week before almost out of the blue, as they cuddled on the sofa, watching Frozen 4, “There was a stain this big of Lieutenant Anderson’s semen! He had sex on the couch I was sitting on, Gavin! And he didn’t even care about cleaning it before inviting me over!”.

“Babe”, Gavin just paused the TV as he pinched his nose, “I’d talk shit about Hank and your brother all the time. Seriously, I love it, it’s my favorite hobby. But are you really bringing up this topic when watching Frozen?! What gives?!”.

“Oh, I’m sorry”, Nines scrunched his nose, LED yellow, “The snow just reminded me of–”.

“HOLY PHCKING SHIT!”.

So, yeah.

They didn’t really finish the movie. And he kind of had a hard time talking about Frozen with Tina any more. Or looking at Anderson in the eye without thinking about him mating like a damn rabbit all over the place.

And they said _he_ was needy.

Anyway, long story short, Nines was slightly becoming reluctant at visiting Connor’s house. And he wouldn’t blame him for that. If he had android vision and could see all the germs and DNA traces in a room, he probably wouldn’t even set foot outside his apartment.

_Secondly_ , Nines was a bad liar.

When it didn’t come to work, Nines was just incapable of telling a lie or making up a believable excuse.

His LED would circle yellow, his eyes would avert his gaze, his voice would slightly glitch or stutter.

And that morning Nines had taken all the precautions to avoid being spotted.

He gave Gavin his left temple as he spoke, he munched all the time on a thirium gum Elijah sent him in the box along with the jackets, and he kept on stroking Princess’s fur just to keep his hands occupied and preventing them from gesticulate as they did when he got anxious or nervous.

So, something was _definitely_ off.

Well, of course he had the feeling it wasn’t anything important.

Nines would have never lied about a matter of life situation.

But still, there must have been a reason for his secrecy.

And even if he trusted him and didn’t really want to pry, he could still have fun and test how much organized and backed-up his lie had been.

He could still give him lessons.

...Okay, maybe he didn’t need lie-lessons. But it could come in handy. Who knew.

After having breakfast and checking the time, he scrolled through his phone.

He had an unread message from Elijah.

|| “What’s held once a year, generally at Thanksgiving or Christmas and binds three or four generations together?”

Gavin rolled his eyes. He absolutely had no time for this bullshit.

|| “It’s a family reunion, you disphit. Stop asking me answers for phcking crosswords. You have Chloe for that”

His phone buzzed after three seconds.

|| “Can’t even spell _fuck_ on the phone?”.

He gritted his teeth, ignoring him. He instead just scrolled over and checked on Hank’s contact.

“There he is”, he grumbled as Scruffy climbed onto the sofa and curled at his feet, “Now, if Nines is really at his place, _which I don’t believe in the slightest_ , there’d be no reason for me for texting him instead. Who knows what these two are up to when they meet, aside from talking about animals and sharing information...”.

He tapped his chin and looked at Hank’s profile on the screen.

Huh. He was online.

Maybe he could pull the work card.

As he carefully sorted out all the possible excuses he could come up with without blowing Nines’ cover, he felt the phone vibrate in his hands and a message instantly pop up.

Hank, nonetheless.

“Well. Talk about being lucky as phck”, he grinned as he rolled over the couch and stood up, hastily opening the chat. He brought the screen close to his eyes as he rummaged through the nightstand drawer searching for his reading glasses. As the phone buzzed again, he let out a curse: “For phck’s sake. Can’t he just wait a damn second?!”.

As he wore them, he sat on the edge of the mattress, now all set.

|| “Reed, remember the Trevors case?”

He giggled as he read the message.

|| “Yeah. The dick on the loose guy? Quite unforgettable”

|| “I know, right? Anyway, you know how his dick was nowhere to be found? Now, I did some research and looks like his ex-girlfriend might have just picked it up from the crime scene, froze it and sold it online”

Gavin drily laughed.

|| “You’re shitting me. Who’d buy a dick? A dead man’s dick! And, I mean, what’s even special about that?!”

|| “Our man had quite a... remarkable dick. And I mean, this world is sick. People out there just buy Britney Spears’s chewed gum, haunted rubber ducks, imaginary friends, a human-sized hamster wheel, Nicholas Cage’s pillows, name one!”

His eyes slowly drifted to his closet.

And the shocked face Nines had when he found that pillow under a pile of clothes. He looked like he had seen a ghost. From that day, he refused to watch any movie featuring Nicholas Cage. God, he still wondered if he had scarred the android for life with that one.

“Okay, that was awfully specific”, he texted back, holding back on his memory of _that_ pillow.

|| “Listen, that duck was hunted. I tell you!”

|| “...What?”

“What? You weren’t talking about the haunted duck?”, Hank stalled as he stared at the phone screen, scratching his beard and nervously sweating, “A-Anyway, what if the ex put him up to it? I mean, the dick bet”.

Gavin knit his brows. So, that was the whole point of the conversation. Well, he usually hated talking about work during the weekend, but he enjoyed working on the Trevors case, though for completely wrong and silly reasons.

So he could bear with talking to Hank as long as he needed someone to brainstorm with.

|| “Well, I mean, we’d need more information. Like, you know, a motive. What’s Connor opinion?”

Hank shrugged his shoulders and leaned on the sofa, one hand dropping from the armrest and now petting Sumo’s fluffy fur. “He still doesn’t know”, he texted him back, “I thought of this right now while going over the files. Why don’t you ask him?”.

Gavin stared as the screen almost incredulous.

|| “Ask him?”

|| “Listen, I take it that you don’t want to spoil your afternoon with work. But I’m not asking you to sacrifice your day off! Just tell Connor, since he’s already there and do me a favor”.

Oh, right. Connor.

The android that was supposed to be already there at his place, Connor and his brother, the RK800 that was especially meant to be in his house. Connor and Nines.

That Connor?

|| “Got you covered”

|| “Reed, wtf are you even saying”

He startled.

|| “Nothing. I’ll tell him later, now he’s, huh”, he stared at the kitchen and caught glimpse of Princess walking over the counter and playing with the fruit basket, _what did even do Connor and Nines when they spent time together?!_ , “they’re playing with the cats. Bye!”.

Hank just frowned.

“Huh. He... usually never writes _byes_ ”.

He jumped off his couch, rapidly standing up.

“Oh no. Bad, bad! My detective senses are TINGLING!”.

***

So. Nines told him he’d be at Connor’s place.

And Connor lied saying he’d be at Nines’ place. Which was basically incorrect because Nines’ official residence was still in the New Jericho apartment complex. But yet, he didn’t argue with that because he was happy with Nines’ decision of moving in with him.

Well, now that was interesting.

They both lied and they weren’t even aware of each other’s lies. So they mustn’t have planned the thing out. And if they didn’t plan it, it must have meant that somebody else asked them to meet and lie about that.

Okay, but there were few people (or _occasions_ ) both Connor and Nines would willingly lie for.

Markus?, nah, no need to lie for him.

Buying presents? Well, Christmas was out of question, Easter too and both his and Hank’s birthdays were months away. If he correctly recalled, Connor’s activation day was in August.

So, yup, no birthdays on sight.

Engagements? Nah, no way Connor thought about going shopping for an engagement ring. Androids still couldn’t get married and even if they did, _man_ Hank surely got a lot on his plate right now, with therapy and all. Not the best time to get married. And even if they planned on something, Nines would have known that better anyway.

He stared at the ceiling, resting his head on the pillow.

Who could he lie for...

It wasn’t as if Nines had some significant people in his life aside from–

...Why, of course! Sixty!

Of course he couldn’t contact the asshole without a reason. Everyone in the department well knew the saying “ _Nobody fucks with Sixty_ ”. So, he may as well thread softly along the line and just try to get some information out of Captain Allen, which was the most friendly person the guy was within the entire SWAT team (and police station).

Now, good thing he never pissed Allen off.

He tapped his temples, circling them with his index fingers, imitating Nines’ LED circling.

Of course he wouldn’t have lots in common with the guy and it wasn’t like they worked together on a regular basis. Hostage rescue and bomb-defusing weren’t really his thing and the few times they worked together on something was in a team play of–

He stared at the screen, furiously tapping on the keyboard.

|| “Playing Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes and I need a hand. You up for the task?”

The guy spent hours talking about that game the rare times he crossed him in the break room. He still did some live streams when he had one or two days off and he was awfully good at it. Being always with Sixty meant that he was doomed to meet Gavin and Hank sooner or later more than once in a month.

Sometimes Nines and Connor just got over at his place to play with his console with Sixty. They really got into gaming.

He didn’t need an elaborated lie.

If Allen ever agreed to play with him he could just get out of that lie by pulling a random excuse. He just needed to know what Nines and Connor were up to right now. And why would they lie.

_Oh, this got awfully interesting._

He rubbed his hands, smugly giggling in anticipation.

His phone buzzed a few minutes later but his smile dropped when he saw Elijah’s message.

“Twice in a day? What’s wrong with him?”.

He opened the chat.

|| “ **YOU ARE TAKING A WEEK OFF** ”.

Elijah?, writing in bold and capitals?

|| “Ex-phcking-cuse me?”

Now, that was an afternoon to remember.

Elijah never lost his shit. And where did that ever come from? Week off? Last time his brother asked him to take some time off his work, they took a vacation to Cortina.

What a time to get nostalgic.

He checked his phone.

|| “Snow-globe broken. I need a new one. We're going to Cortina”.

|| “Do the phck you want, just let me finish some work. And you pay! You hear me?!”

He stared at the screen.

Read and unanswered. Yup, double blue tick mark. He’d better let him off the hook for the day. There was no way he’d pay for an intercontinental flight. God knew he was this broke and his salary was barely enough to cover his monthly rent, vet expenses, health and car insurance _and_ bills.

As he returned to the main page of the chat, he realized Allen had sent him an audio message.

Ah, right. He always sent audios. Luckily enough for him, it was _only_ 30 seconds long.

|| “Reed, despite the difficulty of _Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes_ , I can’t understand how someone like you can’t manage to finish a game with the help of three androids. The best out there, nonetheless. Maybe I was too harsh on Sixty. He wasn’t smug about it. You really suck at that game. Good thing you aren’t in the SWAT team”.

He wrinkled his nose.

Now that was something to be surprised about.

Sixty also told him he’d be at his place?, and to help him out with a game? How naive was Allen to actually trust him on such a poor lie?

Well, maybe Sixty was just a good liar. Having social protocols and all...

|| “Anyway”, his phone buzzed again with another audio message, “Don’t make the mistake of leaving him the controller. Last time we played together, he got so angry he broke it. He hates losing. And he’s a dirty cheater too. So, just for your information, never challenge him unless you want to deal with an angry android or broken stuff”.

He pulled a face. Just what the phck was even going on with these androids?

“Duly noted”, he answered in a short text.

Good thing he didn’t ask him for explanations.

Allen let the phone slip into his pockets and lazily returned to his reading. As he scrolled through the lines, word by word, he was hit by a realization.

Reed saying “ _duly noted_ ”?

Reed being almost formal? Not even a single _phck_?

Not even complaining about Sixty at his place busting his balls?

No, something definitely didn’t sit right with that.

“Am I supposed to feel something tingling?”, he looked around his empty living room, and slapped his face, “Argh, who the hell am I even talking to. Of course something isn’t right!”.

***

Okay. He had to get through this once more.

They all lied about their whereabouts.

This wasn’t about Connor or Nines anymore. There was something huge about that. Seriously, even Sixty? Why would a pest like him even lie to Allen when they were merely co-workers and–

Well, never mind. Maybe they were closer than the asshole even liked to let other people believe.

Man, they could really start a club at this point and go on double or triple dates.

Or not. Scratch that, he didn’t need to see Sixty’s face and Hank’s out of work too.

He sat at the kitchen table, paper and pencil in hand.

Somebody to willingly lie for...

Somebody to...

Wait. A. Phcking. Moment.

“ _When something smells, it’s usually the Kamski_ ”.

Shit. Shit!

He took his phone and quickly went through his chat.

|| “What’s held once a year, generally at Thanksgiving or Christmas and binds three or four generations together?”

Family reunion.

He wasn’t asking for a crossword help! Holy shit, he brought the three of them together for a reunion! And given how he was almost done with Amanda, probably he called them over to introduce them to her.

Oh, how could he be that idiot?

But still, what about the snow-globe? And the week-off?

No, it didn’t make sense.

As he felt Scruffy’s red tail wrap around his leg, he realized how time had flown. His cats were already whining for food and Princess was dragging her bowl all over the kitchen tiles, now dipping her paw in the water just to ~~piss him off~~ ask for attention.

“You fat ass miss, you’d better keep the floor clean! I wiped it yesterday and I’m phcking tired of these puddles all over the kitchen! Last time I slipped and almost broke my neck!”.

Princess stared at him deadpanned, with her glowing yellow eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, keep up this attitude and everybody will hate you eventually”.

The cat just stared back at him, whining in an eloquent _meow_.

Gavin just scrunched his nose: “Don’t ‘ _look at who’s talking_ ’ me, miss! This is about you, not me!”.

He opened the fridge to take out the canned food when he heard a knocking at the door.

“Oh, for phck’s sake!”, he clipped the can open and grabbed a spoon from the kitchen drawer, ignoring the constant knocking, “I’m not answering”, he grunted as Scruffy shaped his tail into a questioning mark.

When the knocking got louder, he just cursed: “’m not buying anything! I’m broke as phck!”.

_That better send ‘em off_ , he muttered as he stared at Princess, who now jumped on the counter, staring at her filled bowl.

As she sniffed her cold food, Gavin just caressed her gray nose, holding her in place: “Wait. Gotta heat it. You’re not eating cold food, girl”.

He slammed the bowl in the microwave, setting the timer, but when his doorbell ringed non-stop for more than ten seconds, he just went to the door, slamming it open.

“I said I’m not buying your phcking Roombas!”.

He flinched as he realized he’d just shouted in Hank’s face.

And boy, if Anderson was pissed right now. He squinted his eyes as he felt the lieutenants’ blue irises scrutinize him.

“...Why are you wearing a blue version of Nines’ jacket”, he said deadpanned.

Gavin just stared back at him, almost incredulous: “Excuse me. You here to shit on my tastes? That’s a very refined jacket, a rare version. The phck you even doin’ here?!”.

“Checking on Connor!”, shouted Hank in return.

Gavin caught glimpse of Scruffy eyeing the door and hastily took hold of Hank’s shirt. He shoved him inside and he slammed the door closed at the speed of light.

“W-What was that for?”

“Cats”, answered the detective as he pointed at them, “I don’t want them to flee. The road is trafficked out there. I already lost one because of that. Better safe than sorry”.

Hank stared at the animals as they both stopped staring at the food in the microwave and came close to sniff the new guest. Scruffy did his usual dance, arching his back and leaving his tail as high and straight as a flag pole, purring as he felt the lieutenant’s calloused and big hands caress and stroke his scruffy fur.

“Uh, you... I never met them”, Hank sat on his heels, smiling as the cats sniffed his hands, probably picking up Sumo’s smell, “I mean, I knew you had cats but that one doesn’t look like a stray at all”, he added as he pointed to Princess.

“British short-hair”, said Gavin as he leaned against the table, “She had a family. But when the couple that adopted her divorced, neither of them wanted to have anything to do with the cat. My vet couldn’t keep her so I ended up taking her. She’s spoilt, but she’s a good girl. I’m surprised Connor never showed you any photos”.

“Maybe he thought you’d get angry at such a breach of privacy”, Hank concluded as he felt Scruffy’s wet nose against his fingers, “And! Talking of Connor! Where the fuck–?!”. He glanced around, now surprised, “Where... where are they?”.

“What? You thought I killed him?”, Gavin just crossed his arms, raising his eyes to the ceiling, “Some trusting boyfriend you are. Why are you here?”.

“I was dead worried!”, he shouted as he exchanged stares with the detective, “I knew something was off when you said _Bye_!”.

“I was just being nice!”

“Exactly! It’s something to be worried about!”, he grunted as he threw his hands in the air, “Last time you were nice to me, it was 2028 and you were shot in the liver!”.

“You gave me your jacket, I had to be nice! Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, right?”

Hank scowled at him: “You still have that jacket, you know”.

“No take-backs, Hank”, he took the food bowl out from the microwave and called the cats to eat. “Anyway”, he added sitting on the couch and taking the TV remote, “You’re worrying too much. Nines told me he’d be at your place yet I’m still here, not flinching nor panicking. You know, if it was something important, he’d already called me”.

“You’re way too relaxed for this. It’s almost worrying Reed–“, he stared at the television, squinting his eyes, “What the fuck? Is that The Lion King?”.

“So what, a dude can’t watch The Lion King?”, he complained gesturing, “Is it offending your masculinity? I don’t want to hear a word from the man that sold online an haunted rubber duck”.

“Y-You knew!”

“You almost told me!”, shouted Reed, “Listen, there’s no use in bitching about it. I don’t know how long this will take them, but if you’re gonna crash down at my place, you’d better shut up. Time won’t pass faster if you bitch about it”.

Hank crossed his arms, sitting at the other end of the sofa: “Why are you watching this movie? I mean, it’s quite old”.

Gavin jumped on the couch, almost offended: “Are you kidding me?! I can’t watch this with Nines! Mufasa’s death would scar him for life!”.

Hank glared at him now that Gavin just made a half-assed laugh.

“Y-You get it?”, he grinned, “ _Scar_? Like... like the lion...”.

“Seriously Reed. Just die”, Hank grunted as he slammed his head on the sofa’s cushions, “I don’t like your attitude”.

“Well, tell me something I don’t know”

“Not your _general_ attitude. I mean”, he gestured at the couch, “You’re awfully quiet and calm. You always complained about how much you hate people lying at you. Yet Nines lied and you don’t even give a fuck about where he is, what he’s up to and why did he even lie”.

Gavin shrugged his shoulders.

“Listen Hank, I already knew I was being lied to. I mean, he’s physically incapable of lying to me! He just sucks at it”, he grinned waving his hands, “He gets all nervous and glitchy, which is quite endearing, all in all. And he’s not that kind of person that lies to hurt people. If he did hide his whereabouts, he probably had a good reason to it. He’s in good hands”.

Hank raised an eyebrow.

“He’s in good hands?”, he dumbfounded repeated, “Wait a fucking moment. You know it, don’t you?!”.

Gavin kept on staring at the television screen, now raising the volume as he stroked the blue jacket with the other hand.

Well. Yes. And no.

Not like he could tell him!

“Listen Hank, I–”.

He stopped as he heard a loud knock. And a doorbell ringing. Again.

God, he knew where this thing was going.

He dragged his slippers to the door and as he saw Allen’s face, he just held him for the shirt and brought him inside.

The captain just glared at Gavin, a little dazed from the sudden grab. When he saw Hank crashing on the couch and no sign of the androids, he just stared at the detective: “Okay. I’m not gonna comment on being dragged inside by force. What’s happening here? Am I missing something important?”.

“Just for the record, what gave me away?”, Reed stared at him, with a bit of anticipation.

Allen just scratched his nape: “What? I mean, you said ‘ _duly noted_ ’. You... you were way nicer than your usual self. Of course I’d worry. Everyone would just worry about that!”.

“Told ya you make people worry when you act nice”, just said Hank from the sofa.

“So much for being nice”.

“Where’s everyone, anyway?”, asked the captain as he glanced around, “And what’s this awful stench?!”.

“Cat food”, grinned Hank, “Smells just as bad as dog food”.

“You’d better get a pair of turtles, you two”, just grunted Allen as he stared at the cats eating in the kitchen, “Low maintenance costs and three or four months always in hibernation. Best animals in the world”.

Well, it figured Allen preferred low maintenance animals. The one he had was already a handful.

“Anyway, I get why Hank is here”, Gavin smirked, suddenly interested, “I mean, Connor’s his boyfriend”. As he heard the man slap his face, he grinned. “Despite he gets embarrassed like a teenager when you call him like that. But that’s an awful level of interest for a Captain such as you, Allen, to come directly to my house just to check on Sixty”.

Hank snorted from the couch: “I can’t believe you’re really taking advantage of this situation to gossip about them”.

“You aren’t curious?”, Gavin suggested as he realized Allen’s cheeks were now tinged pink, “Somebody has a crush for a member of his team?”.

Allen brought a hand to cover his mouth: “Listen, can we ditch this nonsense and just talk about where that pain in the ass went?!”.

“Uh, you wish he was a pain in your ass, huh?”

“Lieutenant Anderson!”, he raised his voice as he watched Hank just giggle to himself.

Gavin grinned in satisfaction: “Whoa, that was pretty savage, Hank”.

“I shall remind you two I’m still a Captain”

“But not our boss”, answered Hank raising his hands, “Before you came here, Reed was about to tell me about our favorite triplets whereabouts”.

“You know?”, Allen stared at him, “And you didn’t tell me?!”.

“I don’t know that!”, Gavin grunted.

Of course he knew they were at Kamski’s! But he didn’t have valid proof to back it up without blowing his cover. He just couldn’t let them know he was related to Elijah.

“I can only make suppositions since it’s my phcking job”.

“So, you have a theory”, remarked Hank as he muted the TV.

Allen stared at the screen: “...Is that The Lion King?”.

“One word about this in the department and I’m killing you two!”, screamed Gavin.

Allen went pale. Well, he’d never seen that man this angry. Better not tell him he still hadn’t watched it and Sixty laughed in his face for that. Which implied _heartless_ Sixty watched it. And enjoyed it.

Hank tapped the sofa and grinned as Allen silently sat.

“Listen, if it were a matter of life or death, they’d probably already told us”, as he realized he had both men’s attention, he sat on the armrest, shrugging his shoulders, “I mean, maybe they just wanted to surprise us? Maybe they wanted a day off to do something they’d be ashamed of telling us?”.

“Like what?”, grunted Hank.

“Like selling haunted rubber ducks, Hank”, Reed scowled at him as Allen just confusedly stared him.

“But that would mean they don’t trust us”, Hank just sighed as he rested the head on the cushions.

“Well, I mean, I’m not the one that came knocking at your door. You’re both here. I’m pretty chill. In fact, I already had my day planned out”.

“Okay, I’m not Connor’s dad! He’s his own person, so I’d never reprimand him for something. But I just can’t understand why he’d hide something from me. That’s... that’s all. I mean, what if he got dragged into some nonsense by Kamski? That fucker still knows how to contact him. What if he’s up to something, what if...?”, he raised his gaze, now meeting Gavin’s green eyes, “That guy creeps me out! What if he’s being held hostage?!”.

Allen pinched his chin: “Oh, you’re talking about that creep that fixed Sixty? Well, I mean, sometimes Sixty goes back to his mansion to get his regular maintenance. I’m not that fond of him either but, I mean, no worries. He can be trusted”.

“He asked Connor to shoot an android girl just to prove a theory!”, shouted Hank, “What part of him can be trusted?!”.

Gavin’s eyes bugged out, as he jumped from the couch: “HE DID WHAT?!”.

“Whoa!”, Hank and Allen both startled, “You almost gave me a heart attack! I get that now that you have Nines you’re all pro-android rights but, man, get it together! He didn’t shoot Chloe!”.

“Let me get this straight. That phcker gave the asshole a gun and risked Chlo– an android girl life just to prove a theory and see if Connor was already deviant?”, he rolled the sleeves of the blue stained jacket and made a beeline for the table, now grabbing his car and house keys, hands trembling in fury, “Is that what he did?!”.

Hank didn’t even bat his eyes, pupils following the rage exploit of Gavin, so pure and sincere. “Well”, he stuttered, failing to understand what was going on anymore, “I mean, he did that”.

Gavin grunted and slipped the house keys inside his pocket.

That phcker was so dead. He was 100% gonna throw him off the plane as soon as they took off to phcking Cortina!

Hank didn’t have the time to understand what happened.

One moment Reed was in the living room shouting in genuine rage, and the next he stormed out his very house, slamming the door so hard the walls trembled and the academy picture of him and Tina fell off, leaving him and Allen on the couch, alone in a house that wasn’t even theirs, with two cats blamingly staring at them.

“...Am I the only one confused here?”, David winced and pinched at his nose as he eyed Hank.

“I don’t even know what’s going on in that kid’s head anymore”, he mumbled as he took the remote. He touched the backward button and pointed at the screen. “Gen Z is _so_ fucked up. These fucking _Zoomers_. So. You up for Lion King?”.

Allen just shook his head, reaching for a tissue in his pockets.

“...Yeah. Lion King”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and, as always, for the support through comments and kudos!  
> I'll be uploading the next chapter by Monday!
> 
> Two facts:  
> (1) those Nicholas Cage pillows really exist, they look like normal pillows on the outside, but if you swipe the red sequins they're made of, they reveal his face [cursed pillows]  
> (2) as weird as it may sound, Princess and her story are inspired by my vet's British Short-hair. A couple really bought her and divorced soon after. Nobody wanted the cat so my vet ended up adopting her. People just abandon their animals in front of his clinic and he takes them in. He has three cats and two dogs, all rescued from the street. Sorry for the digression, but I really thought he deserved credit for that ♥
> 
> See you soon!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don't look a gift horse in the mouth! And if Kamski gives you a present, you take it!

Kamski’s house was turned into a wrecked disaster.

The only space spared from his brothers’ fight was currently the study room, which was also why Nines was now sitting on a reclining chair, icy irises scanning his surroundings and taking in Elijah’s slow and paced movements as he poured himself a glass of water, placing the broken snow-globe on the desk.

“As you probably already guessed”, he started, breaking the silence that descended over the room as he closed the door, “I didn’t invite you over for a silly family reunion or idle chit-chat. You already met Amanda last time and, well, you interact with your brothers almost on a daily basis, so no need for big parties. This gathering was just a decoy”.

The RK900 stood uptight on the seat, picking now at his jeans’ fabric, clutching the denim between his slender fingers, LED circling in amber tints. He had his fair share of concern during the day but he did his best to just hide it.

He couldn’t help but feel sick of being repeatedly and punctually labeled as naive by his family members. He wasn’t a child, he knew that people could be sly or, _as Gavin told him once_ , lie like a dog.

He adjusted his jacket black cuffs, ignoring the electrical shiver that ran over his titanium spine as soon as that he locked eyes with his creator, now wearing his glasses as he intertwined his hands and rolled his thumbs.

“So”, Elijah curled his lips, “How is it going with Gavin?”.

Nines froze on the soft seat, shoulders and legs flinching as his audio processors picked the question.

There was no denying his LED must have been red by now. He should have really taken up on most androids’ advice and remove it once and for all so that people like Kamski could stop reading his behavior like an open book and staring at him with that belittling and condescending guise.

Recently, he realized how much he disliked being treated like a baby.

He didn’t need protection. If anything, he wanted things to be the other way round.

He wanted to be able to protect the important persons in his life.

“Good. I–”, he cut himself ff, before saying something he’d later regret, “Things are good. Thanks for your concerning”.

Kamski looked satisfied but the RK900 had learnt the hard way, through his brothers’ memories, how important actually was to always go beyond that sardonic expression, the sneaky smirk and the tricky questions he asked just to get under someone’s skin. As bona-fide as he may have been, his creator was still someone he should have been on guard against.

“Mh, I’m elated to know you and Gavin are doing fine. In fact, knowing that he can always rely on someone like you, that will never turn his back on to him or backstab him, makes me smile. Well, maybe laugh too, considering that you kind of grew on him and decided to spend your time with that human disaster of a brother without even considering the world of possibilities you have out there.

You could have done everything, Nines.

You have the looks, the brains. The strength. You were meant to be employed in the State Department, you could have aimed as high as you could. Overtaken Jericho. Destroyed it. Just consider, for a barely second, the person you could have become”.

Nines frowned, a cascade of codes flowing over his vision and flooding his HUD.

He knew these pre-constructions.

Gavin called them nightmares. Sometimes, while reviewing his memory during stasis, he’d see them, fragments of patched information, sceneries in which he was still obeying his programming, reminiscences of when he was tortured in his old bodies, dying countless times and being reactivated day after day, for a lapse of time that felt almost like an eternal never-ending loop.

Enduring until snapping, destroying the shackles that held him still just to carry out his vengeance.

The information on those who worked on his programming, software and chassis were classified but not impossible to obtain. His testers weren’t trialed for what they did to him. Being a secret military weapon, usable for mass-destruction– _his very existence meant trouble_.

There were days he wished he had never been built.

Yet there he was.

He could have easily accessed, hacked into the Cyberlife terminals just to dig up the names of those who were responsible for testing his chassis resistance to fire or to radiation. The times he couldn’t just handle the emotional distress, the times he hit his own head against the sterile walls of the lab in the night hoping to die once and for all, ripping his own thirium pump off, dying countless times, over and over again.

-87 wasn’t a casual serial number.

It was 27 numbers afar from 60.

27 times he had died.

And he wasn’t supposed to know.

He wasn’t, but Connor had retrieved all the files from the Cyberlife terminals when he came to free him along with Markus and Lieutenant Anderson. He had watched all the work and testing they did on him and didn’t even think for a moment of protecting those files from his access, organizing them, encrypting them so that even the most advanced android on the Earth couldn’t find or catch a single glimpse of them.

Connor was just his usual self.

And stuff usually slipped in the interfaces.

He could have gone for their lives.

He was an android designed for killing and he didn’t even have the inconvenience of leaving fingerprints. His chassis was so resistant it’d take more than one hit and a bullet to make him bleed, so nobody would have ever been able to trace the murders back to him. People would just assume there was a serial killer on the loose, a vigilante that was avenging androids by killing those who built them, tortured them by injecting deviancy and running tests to see how much it’d take them to plead for feeling nothing at all again, for becoming immune to the deviancy virus until they’d eventually return to obeying to their programming.

Because obeying was easier. Obeying didn’t hurt.

Yet–

He lowered his head.

Kamski was still talking. By rA9. Whatever he was saying, he just stopped listening to him.

“I don’t want to be that kind of person”, he murmured as his LED span red, mouth frowning as his shoulders curved under the weight of the memories, “I don’t want the world. I don’t need millions of possibilities. All my actions are weighted and determined by statistics”.

He hardened his knuckles, skin now receding from his closed fists.

“I just don’t care about them”, he watched as the pale skin just got erased by the wave of the blue glow, limbs slowly tinting white, “I know what I could have been. 90% of possibilities I could have been employed in the Navy, 84% of succeeding in killing Markus, infecting him with a virus, taking over Jericho, 67% of knocking Connor out, abducting him, reset him to his factory settings, erase his memories and have him befriend Markus and manipulating him into taking reckless decisions that would eventually endanger our precious equilibrium.

Some days, I can’t just un-see them.

They scare me– I’m frightened by those possibilities.

Why can’t they be lower?, why can’t they go away?”.

He dug the fingers in his hair, elbows on the knees as he bent over the chair, staring at the floor and shivering.

“But the ones that really matter to me aren’t these”, closing his eyes, now all he could see were notifications, messages that he always kept in sight and a file that got richer day by day in information, “Humans are so frail. And a 36-year-old human male that works in a police department can be a very fragile living being. In fact, I can’t even understand how Gavin managed to survive until today”.

Elijah chuckled as he patted his lowered head.

“From the moment he wakes up to the moment he goes to sleep, all I can see are percentages of survival and my HUD gets flooded by _what ifs_?”, he stared at the floor and he just knew that had he been able to cry, he would have probably been on the verge of tears, “I see him going into sleep apnea, stopping his breathing routine for thirty seconds, and I just can’t help but panic over the thought that he could suffocate, he could stop breathing, he could develop a heart condition, higher blood pressure– and his apneas sometimes occur even ten times per night.

And the percentages just keep on rising each time I see him doing something.

Plugging the hair-drier with damp hands, running over the wet floor, smoking cigarettes when he gets frustrated, stopping eating and skipping lunch or dinner each time he deals with a difficult case, exercising until his muscles give in, being reckless in the field.

And all I can think about is... how long? How long will I be able to protect him?

I cannot control all the variables.

I can do my best but there’s no statistical possibility that tells me Gavin will never develop cancer, will never have a stroke, never need surgeries that could inadvertently go wrong. I cannot protect him from a bullet if he decides that my life is worth taking the hit.

I can’t... his logic... Gavin just doesn’t belong to numbers”.

As he felt Kamski’s soft pat on his hair, he lifted his head.

“There, there, big boy”, Elijah made circular motions as he ruffled his chocolate locks, “Gavin’s been around for almost 37 years now. He sure is reckless, impulsive and his scars talk more than himself. And I can’t guarantee you that bad things won’t ever happen and that your life will be all peaches and cream, sunshine and rainbows until your last heartbeat. But this is part of being human too, Nines”.

He smiled as he caught a glimpse of his grey eyes. They weren’t analyzing anymore, he was just listening.

“See, you don’t want to be treated like a child and I’m not belittling you, Nines. But you’re new to life and all androids sooner or later get through this, just like children one day realize that everything has an end, that their precious stuffed bear won’t last forever, that their parents won’t be around for their entire life or that not every haunted rubber duck you buy online ends up being really haunted. Maybe it’s just a plain rubber duck some superstitious dude thought being infested”.

Nines pulled a face. ...What was even–

“It’s called _acceptance_ , Nines. It isn’t easy but it’s part of life. You just have to take this force as a spur to live each moment to the fullest. _Carpe diem_ , as Horace would say”, Elijah met his doe silver irises and peeked at the now blue LED, satisfied with himself now that he managed to calm the android and help him with his impending crisis.

“Anyhoo”, he collapsed on the chair, rolling all the way up to the desk and grabbing a blueprint from the drawer, “That’s not what I called you today for. Though I appreciate the fact that you’ve shared your thoughts with me. If your relationship with Gavin keeps up, I’ll be both your father and your brother-in-law”.

Nines cringed: “That’s... just so wrong on so many levels”.

“Not as amusing as Connor and Sixty becoming Gavin’s brothers-in-law”

“You really enjoy this situation”, he sighed as he put his hands on the edge of the glass desk. Kamski just stared at his fingers and knitted his brows in a half-smile: “Careful. I saw what you did on my kitchen table out of anxiety. I don’t need any more disasters. It’s not like I can send Gavin the bill”.

“It’s not like you’re billionaire”, deadpanned answered the android.

“Oh. Sarcasm. I like the quirks you’re developing. That’s very much interesting”, he smirked as he opened the blueprint, “You see?, I love sticking my nose in people’s businesses. Well, I mean, Gavin’s my brother and I love annoying him out. Who’s better suited for that work, than an older brother?”.

He tapped the pen cap on the paper.

“I really care about him. And I enjoy challenges. Being the most loaded man on the entire planet, creating a new species, leading a revolution and inadvertently mass-producing a substance that people keep using to create a powerful new kind of drug without even trying to put a halt to its production despite my means? That’s nothing”, shaking his head, he crackled his knuckles, flinching as he felt his pinky suddenly ache, “Gavin is my Rubik’s cube. That man is an enigma. And, well, I have goals and ambitions too, you know? Something about pissing him off and making him happy. My life generally swings in those two ways. Like _Schopenhauer’s pendulum_ , less the pain and boredom”.

Nines gave him a look. Better not interrupt him.

His audio receptors picked up some noise coming from the front door, but he decided on ignoring the turmoil probably coming from his brothers still fighting and destroying the living room or wherever they even brought the fight.

Amanda and Chloe didn’t even care about separating them anymore.

They just stood watching and sipping thirium. He would have gladly joined them if he didn’t have more important matters at hand at the moment.

“So, when I fixed Sixty I obviously had to retrieve the RK800 blueprints. Which wasn’t really difficult, with them being encrypted and stored on the cloud servers of Cyberlife. Good thing they weren’t deleted or nobody tried to hack into them just to mass-produce a bunch of Connors to take over the world with”, he chuckled, laughing to himself, probably not even considering the impact of his words on RK900, “Don’t worry, it would be a waste of time. Look at your brothers; even if they were programmed to take over the world, they’d just end fighting on the floor like damn children. They need a playground”.

“And a sandbox”, dryly added Nines as he stood from the chair, now following on Elijah’s invite to head over to his desk, “What’s this?”.

“As I said, I was studying the RK800’s design and even if your design isn’t as customizable as your brothers’, we can still do something about it”.

The RK900 now tilted his head, studying the messy blueprints Kamski was showing him.

“I... fail to understand your point. This looks like a decision-making cube”.

Elijah rotate the design, now puzzled as he stared at it. “Oh, right. Of course”, he scrunched his nose, rolling the paper and hiding it in the first desk drawer, chuckling embarrassed, “T-That, huh... pretend you didn’t see that. I’m still far from finishing it. The blueprint has to be more accurate”.

“It’s not a blueprint. It’s just a dice template printed on a blue sheet of paper. That’s... that’s it”.

“You feel so superior, spitting facts at me? So what, handcrafting’s not my thing”, Elijah scowled at him and rummaged back and through the drawer, ignoring the crashing noise that came from the hallway, “Uh, I hope the windows are still intact by the time we head back. Next time we’re having a family reunion, it’s gonna be at Gavin’s place”.

Nines rolled his eyes.

_So similar._

“Ah-ha! Here it is!”, he spread the blueprint on the desk for the android to see, “So, as I was saying. I could get my hand on your specifics, design and yadda yadda for the first time one month ago, after your visit. I could have asked you for them but I prefer doing stuff the old-fashioned way”.

Nines raised an eyebrow: “So, just gathering information without asking for people’s consent?”.

“Atta boy!”, he winked squinting both eyes, “I studied all the circuitry of your body and the removable and non-removable plates I could work with. And”, he pointed at the graphic, “Bad news, you’re mostly compact. But mostly doesn’t mean 100%. You see this region?”.

He pointed at his own body, tracing his ribcage and reaching for the hips and the loin, now stopping on the sacrum.

“Sometimes androids break their spines. It doesn’t occur that often since we stopped making them out of iron, but it’s still a possibility. Sometimes they just need internal maintenance. Some places cannot be easily analyzed so this switch”, he circled with the pen the design on the blueprint, “Kind of releases the lower part of the body, leaving the upper exposed. That way, technicians can work with the cables, adjust the thirium pump and stuff”.

“You mean that we all have a switch that could rip us in half?”, Nines shivered, sincerely frightened.

“Yes and no. It’s not that easy, don’t worry! But, well, if you kind of let me, say, open you up, I could install you Connor’s genital biocomponents!”.

Nines pinched his nose.

“Let me get this straight because I’m afraid my audio processors are malfunctioning”, he stared at the blueprint, his mouth slightly opened, “You are really asking me if I’d be okay with being opened up, ripped in half for I don’t even know how much time–”.

“Say nine hours”, commented Elijah, “I already made my calculations, launch pause included”.

“I–”, he pulled a face, “Okay, I don’t even know where to start! I mean, why would you think I’d go through all this trouble just to... just for a penis!”.

“And an anus! Or a vagina!”, Elijah shrugged his shoulders, in a faint smile, “You can pick whatever you want!”.

“I already made my choice!”, Nines raised his voice, scowling at him, “My choice is Gavin! I... I don’t need all of this to stay with him. And yes, maybe I have fantasies, pre-constructions, maybe there were and still are days when I feel like I’m not enough for Gavin, not human enough, but he never once made me a fault for this! He never told me he’d leave me if I didn’t get certain parts!”.

“Well, yeah. But Gavin’s gay as fuck. And, I mean, if you don’t do anal, sooner or later–”

“What”, Nines gaze was so furious he really wished he could shoot laser beams like Chloe told him, if he only could, still raising his tone, closer to a rage outburst, “Pardon my rudeness but firstly, I think that Gavin’s business and behavior under the bed-sheets –hence, his privacy and intimacy, should remain confined there. And secondly, I’d really like to point out how only 36% of gay couples engage in anal penetration. I don’t claim to be the perfect partner, as Cyberlife often tried to market the Traci model, but I have an analyzing software so advanced that grants me the ability to monitor Gavin’s vitals and edge him for as long as I want”.

Elijah widened his eyes as the slammed door noise was covered by Nines' words.

“And you know what? If I tell him to come, he cums!”

Silence dropped into the room, as Elijah just sported a magnified grin, pupil blown and mouth almost close to exploding in a laugh.

“What the phck?”

***

So what, Gavin could over-react.

Had he had a middle name, it would have been _Over-reaction_.

So, yeah, he didn’t really think it through when he slammed the door and jumped on the car. He just knew he had to get at Elijah’s place and give him shit for at least thirty minutes for even trying to get Chloe killed just to prove a point. Because it wasn’t about theories anymore, it was just about his damn ego and his phcking God-complex.

It wasn’t until he reached his mansion that he realized how his impulse-driven decision just made him leave his apartment in the hands of two colleagues who could have rummaged by now in all his drawers, take pictures and send them to the whole department just to laugh about Gavin _phcking_ Reed, the man that never let anyone inside his life, never spoke of his own hobbies or interests and whose house could have been exposed by now to the entirety of Detroit, for anyone to know.

He slammed the car door, sweating bullets and trembling, doing all in his might to prevent a rising panic attack. He didn’t need anxiety right now – _he already had plenty in his regular daily life, thank you very much_ , he just had to check on Elijah and punch his ass face.

He trailed on the ramp and glued his finger to the door bell, insistently ringing.

He stopped only when he heard a thump coming from the inside, so loud he could feel the door tremble. As he tried to sneak a peek at the entryway from the external windows, he heard Chloe’s quirky voice call him out, smiling with a cocktail glass between her fingers.

“Gavin!”, her eyes lit up as her glossy lips curved into a smile, “I wasn’t expecting your visit today!”.

Next to her, soon came Amanda, and by the look on her face, Gavin had the impression she was fed up with everyone’s shit.

“You’re that Gavin”, the android stubbornly stared at him, not even batting an eye as she took in his semblance, his nose scar and the blue stained jacket he was still wearing, “My. I remember you from Connor’s memories and RK900’s pre-constructions. I would have never expected you to show up to Elijah’s door just to check up on him”.

“Yeah, RK900 has a name, y’know”, he blurted in a pissed off remark, “Anyway, Chloe–”.

A second, louder thump interrupted him.

He startled as he tried to peek behind the androids’ shoulders, “What the phck is happening inside?!”, he grunted as he tried to go behind Chloe, “Is Nines okay?”.

“Yes, he’s very much okay. But I’d advise you against entering, Gavin. Sixty and Connor are here too. If they saw you–”, she knitted her brows as she heard a crashing sound coming from the kitchen along with screams and clattery noises, and she exhaustedly rolled her eyes, “Never mind. They’re probably so caught in fighting that they wouldn’t even notice you”.

_Connor and Sixty fighting? Oh, that was something he’d really loved to see_.

“I’m going to check on them”, Amanda just turned the heels on them. Last thing she wanted was sharing her personal space with the human the most advanced android ever built imagined sharing personal intimacy.

_So disgusting._

“What are you doing here anyway?”, asked Chloe now that he made him accommodate inside the house.

Gavin stared in disbelief at the entryway.

Shattered glass and porcelain all over the floor, the sofa and the armchair were turned with the back on the floor like small forts, the painting Carl Manfred gifted Elijah was now tainted and the carpet was ruined beyond recognition.

“Whoa”, he scrunched his nose as he took a ruined trophy between his hands, “This brings back memories. Too bad it’s broken. It was the first prize Elijah ever won at a science fair”.

Chloe gave him a half-smile.

“I would have never imagined someone as composed as Connor could even swing certain fists. He and Sixty have been going at it for rA9 knows how much time. They look so energic”, she crossed her arms, now resting against the wall, “There’ll be so much work to do with the cleanup. Good thing I’m not alone”.

This seemed to make Gavin snap out of his thoughts.

“Right!”, he gestured, posing the broken trophy on the cabinet, “Hank told me that phcker almost got you killed during the revolution! I’m here to kick his ass once and for all! I can’t believe that I’m the only one that cares enough about you to not wanting you dead!”.

“Are you referring to that time he made Connor point a gun at me?”

Gavin scratched his neck, “That..”., mumbling, he now pinched at his forearm, “Yeah”.

Chloe laughed it off and picked up the porcelain remains of a vase, carefully handling it without grazing her skin, “I thought you knew by now that no matter how many RT600s you’ll ever see inside here, there will always be only one real Chloe”.

The detective dumbfounded stared at her, now scratching his nape: “Well, I thought Elijah was speaking figuratively when he said that. People always say stuff like that, like there’s no replacement for you, but yet, I never talked to the other clones so I wouldn’t know about that”.

“Well, now you do”, she winked at his face and trashed the porcelain in the nearest bin, “I have other two clones but the mind’s just one. Having at my disposal three bodies means that I can do chores thrice as faster as I’d do alone, that I can carry out different duties at the same time and that I can just get a clone to listen to Elijah and put her on auto-pilot whenever I’m just too tired to deal with his problems or, as you’d say, bullshit”.

Gavin leaned against the wall: “Your explanation is sound but don’t think that I’m done with him”.

“Of course”, she giggled, “You still want to see Nines, right?”.

“No. If he’s fine, then there’s no need for my being here. I can just head home, watch The Lion King with Anderson and Allen and wait for his return. It’s not like I want to blow up his cover..”., he fumbled with the blue jacket, now toying with the hem of the cuff, but he jumped as he heard a commotion coming from the study room, “Is this shouting?”.

Chloe’s LED circled yellow as she analyzed the audio source: “Looks like Nines is shouting at Elijah”.

So he made his second impulse-driven decision of the day.

He stormed his brother’s office and kicked the door wide open just in time to face Elijah’s smug grin and Nines’ flushed blue cheeks as he screamed in his creator’s face something about making someone cum _–and boy, he didn’t need to know what they were talking about_ , and now mumbling excuses and questions inconsistently.

“What the phck?”, Gavin met his brother’s blue eyes, scowling, “Okay, now you tell me what’s going on here, dipshit! I was about to leave, given that the two assholes still fighting in the kitchen could spot me anytime, but I just can’t overlook Nines being angry. The phck you told him!”.

Nines pinched his nose, LED furiously red: “He said he could give me genital biocomponents if I agreed to let me get ripped in half for nine hours”.

“That’s not what I said”, Kamski corrected him as he was met by Gavin’s incredulous stare.

“Oh, pardon”, the android just shrugged his shoulders as he crossed his arms, “Nine hours, launch-break included”.

Gavin ran to him, slamming his hands on the desk: “Are you phcking nuts?!”.

“No?”, Kamski grinned as he followed Gavin’s gaze, slowly dropping to the blueprints, “I already tried to persuade him, but he’s pretty stuck to his motives. He keeps on insisting that he doesn’t need the genital biocomponents, but I cannot quite understand how such an advanced android fails to realize that he’ll eventually need them to–”.

“You want them, Nines?”, Gavin ignored his brother’s words, now focusing on the android who was still standing and didn’t move by an inch from when the detective entered the room.

He flinched, rubbing circles with his thumb over his palm.

“I..”., he gripped the denim cloth of his jeans, as tension washed over him, and he nervously bit his lower lip, flinching under Gavin’s scrutinizing gaze, failing to understand what the human actually expected from him that moment, “For you... I’d want to..”..

Kamski jumped from his chair: “You didn’t tell me that before–!”.

“Shut your damn mouth!”, groaned Gavin before turning to his partner, “This doesn’t have to be about me, Nines. I know damn well who and what you are. And I’m fine if there are things I cannot change about you. And the last thing I want to hear right now, is you getting insecure about your own body, going to the extent of modifying it just for my sake”.

Nines lowered his gaze ad bit his lip as Gavin patted his shoulder.

“Nines, I love you. I–”, he exhaled, “Just because some humans enjoy sex, doesn’t mean everything has to be about it. Everyone has their needs, some people live better without or don’t even care about that. And sex doesn’t have to be something standardized”.

“But the conventional way... your whole life you had conventional sexual intercourse and I’m just... inept”

“All my past sexual experiences just sucked, Nines”, Gavin dropped his shoulders, raising his eyebrows at his partner and reaching for his hands, now that the skin was retracting, showering in milky white and glowing blue, “You were the first person who ever kissed me and cared about me, put me before himself. All my life, all I ever got from my one-night stands were rough fucks against a wall, maybe after a fight”.

The android just held his head lowered, tracing circles on Gavin’s palms.

“What if you get bored?”, he whispered, LED red, “I don’t want to break up with you Gavin! I don’t want to be abandoned just because I feel inadequate, because I’m not meeting your expectations and I’m lacking and–”.

“I would never, ever hurt you, Nines”, Gavin lowered his head, examining the delicate and soft movements of the android’s fingertips over his skin, pale fingers that traced his olive complexion, silvery eyes that silently observed the miracle of their joined hands, artificial and organic skin at contact, “I don’t need sex to be happy or to feel loved by you, Nines. Of course you’re hot as phck and I’d be an hypocrite if I said I don’t get an hard-on just by looking at you, but I feel complete even by knowing that you’re here by my side and that you love me, regardless of the human disaster that I am”, he gestured at his own body, just to stress his point, “That’s enough for me, Nines. You’re more than enough. You’re all I could ever ask for in my entire life”.

Nines bit his lower lip, increasing the pressure on the detective’s hands and if he could cry, he probably would have teared up by now.

“Well, now this is awkward”, Kamski faintly smiled and he could vaguely anticipate the reproaching expression on his brother’s face for his remark, “Oh, come on! Don’t look at me like this, Gavin. Listen, you know I have a thing for experiments that challenge the human concept of morality. It’s not my fault if you folks all have qualms about stuff. You’re way too close-minded, for all that I care”.

“Why don’t you stop giving people heart attacks and find a damn real job”, Gavin grunted as he gave him his shoulders, “If we’re done here, I’m going back home. What about you, babe? You’re staying here, keeping company to this idiot, manipulative and cretin brother of mine or you’re coming with me to enjoy some quality-time?”.

Nines slightly blushed at the pet-name, he still wasn’t used to being called that, registering the increased internal temperature and the knowing and satisfied look his creator just gave him. Pulling the best grin he could, he straightened his posture.

“I think I’m going to opt for the quality-time”, he winked at the detective, in the way he well-knew neither him or Kamski could ever do despite being thirty-six, and he distractedly gazed at the hallway, in a hint of uncertainty.

“Gavin, before leaving... I just want to go check on Connor and Sixty and tell them I’m going. I don’t know if they’ve noticed you’re here so... you can wait for me in the car. I’ll be with you in a moment”.

Gavin smugly smirked and adjusted his blue jacket.

“Don’t worry. You could tell them I’ve come to pick you up and that, if they want, I can give them a lift to our house. This way they’ll have to pay less for the cab”.

Nines dubiously stared at him.

“You’re offering them... a lift?”, stuttering, he almost failed to believe his own audio processors, “Gavin, are you okay? Did you hit your head?”.

“Shut up! You’re always telling me to act civilized and don’t be a dick. Don’t rub it in if I’m acting nice for once! I’m tired of people freaking out every time I try to be the good guy”

Well, in the android’s opinion, he should have seen that one coming.

Gavin never forbid him to analyze his behaviors, so Nines did see no harm in checking his stats, just to be sure he hadn’t ulterior motives (whatever they could have been). His heartbeat was slightly accelerated, registering more palpitations than usual and his smile seemed... off. For all he could know, the man could have plotted the most idiotic plan or revenge on the face of the Earth and he, the most advanced prototype ever created, wouldn’t be able to guess it because the same detective’s existence defied numbers.

All he could do was trust him and wait for his plan reveal.

If there was a plan.

He was way too short on data to make pre-constructions or assumptions.

As Lieutenant Anderson often said, he would just have to roll with that.

“...Fine”, he said after a long and silent analysis, leaning on the door frame.

He was about to leave the study room when Kamski’s voice stopped him.

“Ah, Nines. If you’re both heading home, why don’t you stop and talk to Chloe? She’s got a small package for you, just a lil’ present for my android son and future brother-in-law”, he sported a smug look as he met the querying gaze of the android and the inquisitive one of his brother, “And Gavin, I strongly advise you against peeking at the present’s content before being, as some would put it, _in camera caritatis_. I even had it wrapped in lead foil so even an RK900 couldn’t spy on its contents without opening it”.

Gavin gave him an exasperated look.

“There are days I can’t even fathom how you and I can possibly be brothers”

“Yet here we are. Gav and Lij, partners in crime”, Kamski squinted his eyes, ignoring the way his sibling just face-palmed: “You realize I’m a cop, right?”.

“I’m better off to Connor and Sixty”, Nines just cut off the conversation, hoping to be spared of any more sibling bickering for the day, “Gavin, why don’t you wait for me in the car? If they were to see you here with Kamski, they’d get suspicious at least”.

Kamski leered at him.

Well, well, it looked like Nines could still be a good liar when it came to the important stuff.

“Don’t forget about your present!”.

When he stepped into the kitchen, searching for his brothers, he quickly realized that, aside from the post-apocalyptic scenario that his optical units were now witnessing, taking in destroyed ceramic dishes, glass and porcelain fragments scattered on the floor and pans out of the pantry that, judging by the thirium traces over them, were probably used as shields, the fight probably moved to another place.

And considering the half-open door in the back, it wasn’t difficult guessing where.

Entering the backyard, he didn’t even flinch as he found his brothers, _his predecessors_ , still fighting like children, scuffling and tussling on the terrain, shirts stained with grass and dirt, skin retracted and faces tainted by now evaporated traces of thirium, that dripped from the nose to the chin.

“How come they’re still at it?”, catching a glimpse of Chloe, he walked next to her, almost amused by the fact that Amanda was now projecting an hologram of a watch on her own palm and had a timer that had been going by the time his brothers probably started throwing punches at each other.

They both shook their head.

“Who knows”, bitterly concluded Amanda, pointing at the way the two brothers kept on rolling on the grass, skinless to avoid giving the other hair to pull, “They stopped with the videogame complaints half an hour ago. They switched to argue over the revolution’s events, then Connor whined about that time Sixty spoilt him Rick and Morty’s ninth season finale in an interface”.

Nines gritted his teeth in a pained expression: “I cannot blame him for that. Spoiling is a practice highly condemned by humans. It’s one of the utmost forms of treason. Friendships and romantic relationships can be irreparably compromised by a single spoiler. If something similar happened to me with my favorite book or movie, I would have probably had the same reaction”.

“Tch. You and your adopted human customs”

Chloe just giggled: “I remember that time Gavin was heading off to the cinema and I just told him, ‘ _What are you even going for? Everything the protagonist goes through in the second half of the movie turns out to be a dream!_ ’”. At the suffering gaze of the android, she just laughed, even more amused, “Well, I’ve already told you that Elijah’s social protocols are just a working disaster! They just gave me troubles. Experience just granted me a better understanding of Gavin”.

Nines fondly shook his head: “Kamski told me you had a package for me”.

“Oh, yes. You’re gonna like it”

“So... is it really a present?”, he intriguingly asked, despite his lingering doubt about its content.

“Of course. If, by any means, you were to dislike it, you can always return it next time you visit us. Though I cannot assure you Elijah won’t pester you with questions about your experience. He’ll be dying to hear your opinion and have your feedback about the product. Being a prototype and all..”

“He’s giving me a prototype? Is it even safe?”

“Oh, come on Nines, don’t chicken out! It’s just a present. Nothing that will blow your brains or kill you”, she winked at him, and it wasn’t like Kamski didn’t propose to tear him in a half thirty minutes before just to give him a penis, “Besides, I don’t want to spoil you the surprise”.

Whatever his plan was, admitted and conceded that the man’s decisions actually involved a sensible line of reasoning, he wouldn’t have known that before heading home.

He walked in the yard and stopped a few steps from where his brothers were now lying down exhausted, both soiled with dirt and grass. As much as he would have liked to adopt a sarcastic, almost pissed off approach, he opted to avoid hostile confrontations and he kept a neutral tone.

“I contacted Gavin to pick me up”, he said with hands behind his back, surprised by his brothers’ incredulous looks, “Since I told him you were here with me, he offered to give you a ride to our place. You can take the cab from there”.

Sixty got up laboriously, holding his head back now that the world seemed to be spinning more than it should after the time spent in fighting.

“He’s giving us a lift”, he repeated atone, as if he needed to hear the words coming out of his very mouth to believe them possible, “That stupid human would do somersaults to get into your pants. Though there's nothing there to begin with. But the point still stands”.

He ignored the annoyed look he received in response and stood up now that Connor was back on his feet.

“Well. Fuck that. He wants to look like a good boyfriend? I’m dead tired, I need to get into stasis, and at this point, I don’t even care if we take a cab or if he gives us a lift”.

“Nice way to thank someone who’s about to do you a favor”, grunted Connor as he rolled his eyes. He patted his younger brother’s shoulder and smiled kindly, “It’s nice of Gavin to offer us a ride”, he said, “as proof that although he hates to define himself my friend, he wants to make a good impression on you and maintain civilized relations with us”.

“Pff, maybe we’d better tell Nines that by dropping us at his place, he’s unconsciously doing us a favor”, Sixty leaned on Connor’s shoulder, snickering when he caught the little one’s confused stare, “Anderson would have gone nuts if he knew Connor came to see Kamski for no good reason, and even though Allen is pretty indifferent to what I do, he’s been asking me out for two weeks and, frankly, I’m running out of excuses.

I don't need to go on a date to know that I suck at it and I get anxious, so I’ve been just running away. In the end, I took the plunge and agreed with Connor that we’d both say we’d spend the day at your place. No one would have asked a question knowing we were together”.

Nines opened his mouth, more incredulous than ever: “You both agreed to lie about being at Gavin’s place?! And on top of that, you both shamed, reprimanded and mocked me about lying in my relationship when you told lies more serious and grave than mine to avoid arguments or spending a moment of intimacy with your partner?!”.

He couldn’t believe his brothers were so miserable.

“Don’t worry”, Sixty elbowed him, “Today you had our backs, but tomorrow we can return the favor”, he added in a wink.

“I’m so angry at you that I don’t even know where to start”, he huffed, gritting his teeth, “I’ll go get the package and then we’ll go home. I’ve had enough for today”.

He didn’t imagine the return trip to be quite, not after all that happened during the day. Nor he had expected the civil greeting Gavin reserved both androids, his tranquility in letting them rest in the back seats without too much protest, nor his awkward docility. Connor and Sixty had been weirdly silent – _especially the latter, mindful of Kamski’s threat if he only hinted at their being relatives_. They had even withheld comments about the jacket that Gavin was wearing, the one he had unfortunately stained the month before.

With the radio on, Nines didn't notice the absence of noise coming from the back-seats until they arrived at their destination.

Only then he was surprised by finding both his brothers in full stasis, LEDs flashing blue as Sixty rested his head on Connor’s shoulder.

“Look at them”, Gavin killed the engine and softly gazed at the two androids, “Dozing off in the car. This bring back memories. Me and Lij used to fall asleep like that too”.

He rummaged in his pockets and quickly got his cell phone, smirking as he met Nines’ inquiring stare: “Don’t make that face. This is blackmail material. It can always come in handy. Also, how many chances will I ever get to take a picture of these two assholes’ resting bitch face after a day of punching and fighting like kids?”

“They’ve sure picked up some unpleasant human habits”, Nines agreed, but Gavin amusedly laughed, keeping his voice as low as possible: “Don’t talk nonsense. It’s not about human habits: they’re just brothers. Quarreling is almost normal. You know, sometimes brothers be just like that. Destroying a house’s furniture just to prove a point and stuff”.

He took the picture, thanking the low light in the car for allowing him to take a decent photo without using the flash.

“Why are the lights in your house on, by the way?”

Nines frowned when he caught a glimpse of the apartment window lighting, and his suspicions were confirmed when, wirelessly interfacing with the home automation system, he realized that not only the living room lights were on, but also the kitchen’s.

This time he couldn’t spare the detective of his cold and questioning glacial stare: “Gavin”.

“Relax”, he shrugged his shoulders, playing with the house keys and swirling them on his index finger, each turn a tinkle, “If they’re still where I left them, they’re probably still crying for the Lion King finale”.

He sighed.

... _That human_.

He must have expected Gavin to have a plan of his own when, once on his doorstep, he spotted Lieutenant Anderson and Captain Allen slouched on the couch, a mountain of handkerchiefs tossed on the coffee table, crumbles of sandwiches scattered on the carpet and the two adults both wrapped in a blanket, with red circles around their eyes and obvious symptoms of tear-dryness.

They had indeed been crying until now.

On the TV were rolling the credits of the movie they've just ended watching and they both seemed to jolt as soon as they heard the click of the front door and saw both him and Gavin enter.

“Lieutenant, Captain”, Nines lowered his head in a nod of respect, as he laid Kamski’s package on the sideboard at the entrance, “Gavin didn’t tell me he had guests”.

Hank wiped his nose with the sleeve of his shirt and adjusted the messy ponytail, clearing his voice in a grunt.

“Hey, _big boy_ ”, he stroked his shoulder, paternally adjusting his black and white jacket, holding a smile as he peered at the two uniforms in comparison, the blue-stained one on the detective and the pristine, clean one on _the android_ , “Did you have fun with your brothers?”.

Nines tilted the head a little, analyzing the tone of his voice.

He didn’t sound malicious. Hank was genuine in his questions.

“I didn’t get a chance to spend time with them”, he frowned, averting his gaze, “They’ve been fighting each other almost all the afternoon, rolling on the grass and on the ground like pigs on mud. Now they’re so tired they’ve entered stasis. They didn’t even notice we got out of the car and left them there”.

To confirm his point in front of the almost incredulous faces of the two colleagues, Gavin pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and showed them the photos previously taken.

“Gosh, all the afternoon, throwing punches?”, Allen widened his eyes, “Aw, would you look at them though. They look like two little angels”.

“I demand a copy of this photo now”, Hank remarked as he took out his own phone.

Nines locked eyes with Gavin’s as he shyly frowned.

“I don’t understand”, he admitted without hiding a certain confusion, “I thought the only reason you gave them a ride was to ruin their reputation and expose their lies. Why aren’t they angry?”

Gavin put his hand on his back, moving his palm in a reassuring circular motion.

“I’m not mad at you for hiding the fact that you were going to Kamski’s, right?”, his caress was reassuring on the Kevlar fabric of his black and white uniform, and he could feel all the affection the detective felt for him, so much love that he even put aside the embarrassment of showing his feelings in front of the Lieutenant and Captain just to make him feel comfortable and accepted, “Of course I knew something was wrong this morning –you suck at lying. I don’t blame you, Nines. You didn’t lie to hurt me, and it was probably a painful decision for you to take, too”.

He squinted his eyes.

“And, well, maybe next time just be honest with me from the start, okay?”.

“Ah... Now I feel kind of bad for missing their fight. It would have been so much fun”, Hank leaned against the door frame, looking at the picture in a sigh.

“Yeah. Sixty would have definitely kicked Connor’s ass”.

Nines blinked at the Captain's words.

“Forgive me, but I think I misheard you”, Hank raised his hands, “For a moment, I thought I heard a SWAT Captain admit that his subordinate, with whom he has absolutely no romantic relationship, would be able to overpower in a one-on-one fight a good detective that knocks out a suspect in ten seconds flat”.

“Sixty can defuse bombs with his eyes closed, your Connor-”

“Well, I’d spend the rest of the day here listening to your complaints but, oh look!, it’s getting late!”, Gavin pushed them both towards the door with a certain urgency, ignoring the intrigued glance of his cats, who had surely seen the house more trafficked on that day than in the rest of their lives, “Why don’t you go and get your boyfriends out of my car? I bet they’ll have a lot to tell you!”.

Allen turned around just enough to kill him with one look.

“He’s not my boyf-!”

Except that Gavin had already slammed the door in his face, much to the surprise of the RK900, now more confused than ever.

“It wasn’t exactly courteous of you, Gavin”, he simply rebuked him as he watched the two colleagues, now walking on the landing, both caught in a lively discussion. They went on for a few seconds before the lieutenant threw his hands in the air and his steps disappeared along with those of the captain along the stairs.

Gavin bent down on his heels to caress both his cats and, once he had dispensed the necessary pampering, he picked up the blanket from the sofa, folded it neatly and placed it on the armchair, drumming the soft cloth to signal the cats to go and rest on it.

“Well, it may have not been _courteous_ , but I’d like to remind you my house isn’t a bar where you can drink and fight”, he pointed to the two glass bottles on the coffee table, non-alcoholic beer drunk to the last drop, “They consumed my handkerchiefs, drank, ate, and watched the Lion King. My hospitality ends here. Who even wants to listen to their babbling about who has the strongest or the coolest boyfriend in the world”.

He dumped the bottles into the glass container and threw both arms around the android’s neck, now that his hands were caressing his nape, touching the entrance of the back port with his fingertips.

“It’s a competition lost at the start”, he whispered as he pulled Nines to himself, biting his soft earlobe, “We all know you are the best”.

Nines breathed deeply, his hands suddenly trembling as he hugged the detective’s hips, flickering as he felt Gavin’s rough, calloused fingertips massaging his port, lightly caressing it as if to ask permission.

With a kiss on his beard, he licked a strip of saliva along his jaw, going down to his neck, basking in the sight of his jacket on him.

“ _Mine_ ”, he thought to himself, pulling the hem of his old uniform and drawing the detective even closer to him, “ _My human, my sweet organic– he’s all mine_ ”.

Gavin closed his eyes, taking everything Nines was currently giving him: the tender caresses and the intense touches, the way the android’s fingers pulled his clothes, clutching the fabric and clinging to him as if his very life depended on it. His white phalanges shone cyan and it didn’t matter if the way they pulled the v-neck of his shirt was now scratching his nape – _Gavin loved that too, the hint of pain on his skin_.

“ _Mark me_ ”, he almost wanted to say, but the words remained trapped in his throat when out of the corner of his eye he caught glimpse of the box covered with lead foil on his sideboard.

Nines seemed to pick up on that too and shifted his attention as he softened his grip, realizing too late he had left a slight mark on the detective’s skin.

“I-I’m sorry”, was the first thing he said, LED red, but Gavin immediately grabbed his hands and lovingly kissed his fingertips: “What did I tell you about apologizing without a good reason?”.

“But I hurt you”.

“Ssh”, leaning his mouth on the blue phalanges, he bent it into a smile and ran the android’s fingers over his beard, chuckling as he felt the plastic and smooth polymers now stroking and caressing his fuzzy hair, “It’s all right Nines. I like it if you hurt me a little. It means I really do magic for you. I love it when you lose control, it’s okay if... if you do that more often, as long as you wish to. I just thought about that box and..”.

“You curious?”, the android interrupted him, amused by the detective’s now almost childish expression.

Gavin hadn’t even made an effort to resort to one of his usual excuses, instead merely scratching the back of his head as he did whenever he was nervous and didn’t want to admit it.

Nines kissed him: “Well. I suppose politeness dictates to open this gift. Your brother will probably expect an answer by tomorrow. It would be a pity to disappoint him, although after this afternoon’s proposition I can’t help but harbor a certain amount of resentment towards him”.

He took hold of the box and, as they both sat on the couch, he pulled at the ribbon, slowly and meticulously unwrapping the present.

His analysis revealed the detective was much more agitated than he was, as if he didn’t know what to expect.

And honestly, when he opened the box he wasn’t sure how to react as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! What's in the box? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)  
> Stay tuned for the next _(smutty)_ update!


	4. Chapter 4

“Nines? Are you with me?”

Gavin waved a hand in front of the android now petrified on the couch, perfectly still and not even batting an eyelash as he held the box, the lead wrapping now lay ripped on the floor. His grey eyes absently stared at the package’s contents. Gavin shook his shoulders, way too preoccupied for him. Nines never breathed, so there was no telling if he was still there or not. For all he could know, Nines could have crashed as well or was experiencing some sort of malfunction he absolutely knew no shit about. And the last thing he wanted to do, was reporting to his brother that his boyfriend short-circuited over... well–

God, he couldn't tell anyone, could he?

The RK900 scanned the inside of the box and brushed the content with his touch, just to confirm that he wasn’t daydreaming nor hallucinating and that his optical units were still in working order.

“I-I’m with you, Gavin. I’m operative”, he stammered as he realized the seconds that just slipped by between them, a silence that must have worried the human along with the red color he kept on radiating from his temple, “I’m just trying to figure out the meaning of... this thing”, he added gesturing to his creator’s _gift_.

“W-Well, that cylindrical thingy is a fleshlight”, Gavin scratched his nape, suddenly embarrassed and more than aware of the awkwardness of the current situation, “And the other one is a dildo with a... huh..”., covering the mouth with his hand, clenched now in a fist, he faked a cough, “A strap-on harness. Y-Y’ know, to keep it... to keep it in place”.

That seemed sufficient to earn an eyeful of exasperation and intolerance by the android.

“Thanks for the duly explanation but I wasn’t referring to the objects in particular”, remarked the RK900, not without a pinch of sarcasm –honestly, he was so done with keeping his mask of patience and lack of emotions, not after the terrible proposition his creator made him the same afternoon, “I was simply, genuinely wondering why _said fleshlight_ has the design and colors of my jacket”.

Gavin held the incriminated object and carefully studied it.

“Damn, he even added the triangle”, he traced the glowing shape and examined the sex-toy’s hole, “I can’t even imagine what Lij thought when he made this, _God knows I don’t even want to know_ , but this hole here looks awfully tight”.

“Seriously, Gavin? That’s your only objection?”, he threw his hands in the air, irreproachably shaking his head, “I cannot believe that your brother gave _me_ – us!, a box with _this_ stuff and the only observation you have inherently is about the tightness of that toy!”.

Delving in the box, Gavin pulled out a card, with a QR code attached.

“Here, babe. Why don’t you read this? Better hear from the direct source”

“Of course. How worse can this thing get, right?”, he sighed, hoping that the human gesture of inhaling and exhaling air could sort the same relaxing effect on his circuits that usually did on human beings: _relaxing_ and regulating the internal temperature.

He carefully took the card and scanned the code.

Encrypted, for his optical units only. Not something that anyone could have access to with a regular cell phone or dispositive, nor any android could accidentally read.

Kamski made a _damn_ recording to explain his gift’s content.

“Good evening, Nines. Thanks for accepting my gift. I explicitly asked Chloe not to give you any indication of the content because otherwise, what surprise it would have been? Anyway, this hardware doesn’t require a complicated installation, it’s pretty straightforward. Do you like this technology? It’s _plug and play_. No need to wait for eternal configurations! It’s already compatible with your software. Just plug that chip into the port in your neck, and you’re good to go”.

Nines astoundedly listened to the recording and only now had he realized that his pump’s heartbeat had accelerated so fast that the thirium was now rushing to his cheeks, now dark as blueberries.

Attached to the note was the mentioned chip.

Small, the size of a fingernail.

“Babe, are you all right?”, covering the android’s hand with his own, Gavin locked eyes with his silvery gaze, searching his irises for the answer that hadn’t yet come to him, although by the color of his cheeks, it was easy to understand that the RK900 now knew all the details laying beneath the _chip_ and the new hardware, “Hey, you’re not gonna tell me these things are...”.

“T-They are synched”, Nines rarely stumbled, but Gavin hadn’t an ounce of doubt about it: he loved his sudden uncertainty, the embarrassment that pervaded his pale complexion, marked by precious and little moles and freckles, the way his hands seemed almost trembling at the realization of the significance of that gift, as he now retracted his skin, fingertips glowing blue, “It seems that Kamski only wanted to make fun of me this afternoon”.

He still found rather hard to believe that his creator had gone _to that extent_ just to prank him, assuming that Nines would 100% refuse the proposal to be cut in half and put back together just for the sake of getting a genital component or two.

Maybe Kamski already knew the answer, maybe he made a bet and tested his luck, gambling with life as he usually did. Maybe he just wanted to know how much the most advanced prototype ever created was willing to give up for his brother.

It was indeed another of his tests from the beginning, one of his sick games with people’s feelings, pulling the strings just to test the strength of his and Gavin’s bond. It was silly of him, not considering that option from the beginning

Maybe he was still a little _naive_. He definitely had to work on that.

“Believe me. Thirty-six years have passed by and I still can’t understand how he and I are biologically related. He’s an unrivaled dickhead”.

Cupping his bearded chin between milky hands, Nines smiled and grazed his lips with a peck: “Wrong. You are his worthy rival”.

“Thanks babe, you just called me an asshole”.

“With great power comes great responsibility”.

He winked at the detective and took the box for himself, carefully holding the chip between his fingers.

“This goes in the back port, here. Your brother said that once attached, the hardware is already functional. No calibration needed, as long as I know. I mean, this afternoon, he said he managed to get his hands on my blueprints so I take for granted that this is the sole reason the biocomponents don’t need adjustments. Still, I honestly don’t know what to expect...”.

Gavin took the dildo in his hands.

“It’s not that detailed”, the texture was soft to the touch and a little sticky, probably because of the silicone coating, but it was as white as Nines’ chassis. He really wanted to ignore the reason why this dick still had his _ideal_ features. Last thing he needed was dwelling on the possibility that a _certain_ someone had tracked his IP each time he accessed to a porn website just to get an idea on how to design an appealing dick for them.

“I mean, it’s squishy. ‘s probably because of the silicone, but it’s not for me to judge. I mean, if you don’t like or you don’t feel like trying it at all, we can put it back in the box. I already told you that I–”

“Y-Yes, I know. But, listen”, Nines couldn’t deny that he had a certain amount of curiosity, nor could he admit out loud that his... _penis?_ , could he call that thing _his_ _penis_ even though he couldn’t attach it to his body?, stood divinely in the detective’s fist, and he felt a certain tremor at the idea of feeling those rough, calloused hands along the smooth, white surface of his new hardware.

Under the now peering eyes of the human, he could feel a certain feverish expectation.

Gavin had repeatedly shown him that he didn’t care about _how_ they made love, and that there was nothing he treasured more than Nines’ happiness, his feeling comfortable and accepted wholly as an android.

He wasn’t doing this out of fear of losing Gavin, nor to indulge him.

He knew Gavin loved him regardless of what there was between his legs.

But Kamski went out of his way to create something tailored just for him, for an android who couldn't, _in any way_ , experiment certain feelings. The sole RK900 prototype ever existed, the un-moddable android par excellence.

Yet, _be it out of spite or pure curiosity_ , that devil found a way to do it, a loophole that afforded him not only to create something imponderable but also to (supposedly) make it work without even testing it in less than a month.

There was no way he could give up such an opportunity, no way he’d turn his back on the fantasies and pre-constructions that he had irrevocably kept repressing over the past months.

“Gavin, it’s almost embarrassing for me to ask you this, but”, he brushed the back of the detective’s hand, swirling his fingers in circles over the visible, almost embossed veins of his hand, brushing the brown hairs.

Gavin kissed him, almost amused by his sudden embarrassment.

“You’re always shy when it comes to asking for something”, he caressed the nape port with the light touch of a feather, drawing a thrill of pleasure from the android now that the mole-studded skin was retracting, revealing the white chassis.

Embracing his neck, he kissed his jaw, taking the chip for himself.

“You’re so good for me, Nines”, he sighed, biting his earlobe, soft flesh – _silicone?_ , and proceeding now on kissing his hair, synthetic fibers that appeared and disappeared as his lips passed. He scratched the port with his nails before matching the chip with the designated entrance, “What are you thinking in your head, babe? What am I like in your pre-constructions?”.

“G-̢̧̛̹̞̔͗̈G̱̹̞̭̝̳̣̔͒͒͘̚͘a̱͇̖͆͠͞v̧̨̗͋̏͗ȋ̱̣̭̲͂̐͆n”, Nines shivered in a violent jolt and brought his arms around the human’s waist, squeezing his skin vigorously, jerking under his ministrations, under the hands that continued to torment his nape despite the chip, the phalanges that caressed his wires and the kisses that gave no respite to his skin, as if they wanted to strip him down to his chassis more and more, until he completely lost his control.

Leaning his head against the sofa cushion, he felt the pleasant sensation of Gavin’s weight on him as he sat on his thighs and continued to kiss him undaunted.

Ah... there was nothing he loved more than the attention his favorite human was giving him, even now that he was unbuttoning the starched collar of his black shirt with delicacy and absolute calm, sliding his capable and experienced hands slowly but languidly along the buttons.

Nines breathed in, trying to lower the rising internal temperature, but was caught off guard by Gavin’s immediate tension now that his heart had lost a beat and his body was in an immediate state of alert.

“Gavin?”, analyzing the detective’s green eyes, he immediately realized that the dilation of his pupils was no longer in response to the state of excitement and sexual arousal but more out of fear, “What happened?”.

“N-Nothing! I heard a vibration and it took me by surprise, that’s all”.

He cracked a smile, playing with the hem of his collar, and as he leaned against the android’s shoulder, he inhaled the scent of laundry softener and detergent from the fabric, enjoying the heat coming from his body, a temperature lower than that of any other human being but not as cold as ordinary plastic, “I didn’t want to worry you, sorry”.

Nines slid his hands down his back, caressing his shoulder blades, down to his pants, squeezing his ass through the denim fabric. He had mapped his entire body hundreds of times, yet the thrill of tracing his smaller frame, his organic body in contrast to his synthetic chassis, made him itch with the need of renewing each contact, each touch always feeling like the first time.

“Don’t apologize”, he murmured in his neck, peppering the olive skin with kisses, playfully tapping the tip his nose with the index finger, “That’s what you’re always telling me, isn’t it?”.

“The pupil surpasses the master, huh?”, Gavin collided his lips with the android’s and didn’t hesitate to give him more room as he felt the soft tongue almost asking permission to break into his mouth, sucking the lips and grazing the teeth, demanding for entrance.

The detective smiled in the kiss, sucking on his dense, sterile saliva, pleased with the bitter aftertaste it left in his mouth and the way it was now mixing with his own saliva.

He heard the buzzing noise again, but this time he plainly decided to ignore it.

“Phckin’ android”, he hissed in the kiss, holding the RK900’s hard and tough neck, now messing up his hair with a certain amount of pleasure and fun, “Next time, remind me to turn that phcking cell phone off. I’m not in the mood to listen to our colleagues’ ramblings or Lij’s bullshit right now”.

Nines curled his lips in a grin and placed his hands on the detective’s stiff hips – _he loved their robustness, the muscles hardened by the exercise and the scars that ran over his body_ , all of Gavin’s was a silent work of art and told stories he would never tire of hearing.

Though he loved the man with all his heart – _or thirium pump_ , he found his occasional naivety absolutely adorable, loving the way Gavin all too often tended to neglect within the walls of his apartment that he was still a good detective, maybe one of the best out there.

There were times when he struggled to understand how a man as capable and professional as him, could truly become the most absent-minded person in the world once he put his badge and gun on the table.

“It’s not your cell phone, Gavin”, Nines stroked the hem of his old blue jacket, still on the detective, struggling to hold back a smirk of complacency. Seeing him wrapped in that blue ruined garment, that once belonged to him, undoubtedly warmed his circuits. He lifted the human’s chin and gently bit its tip, licking and mouthing the hair of his beard: “Try again”.

He registered the detective’s shudder, his heart suddenly losing a beat and immediately accelerating, _frantic_ , as if the realization of what was happening had hit him like a high-speed train. Nines locked his gaze on his dilated pupils, augmenting his hearing range just to hear the increasingly heavy breathing of the human, the dry gulp as Gavin slid his gaze towards the open box, from the inside of which now was coming the buzzing and a soft, blue light.

“O-Oh, you must be phcking shittin’ me”.

Nines wouldn’t lie.

In that moment, his hands were shaking with the urge to unbutton his pants, throw them on the floor and do the same with his black shirt.

“Apparently the synchronization is pretty quick”, he slid his hands under Gavin’s v-neck shirt, stroking his pecs and palpating them with eagerness, tracing the scars one by one and sneering at the thought that, although they were still dressed, his nipples were so swollen at the touch. He brushed the tip with his fingertips, swirling and squeezing them now that Gavin had inhaled sharply and his shoulders were shaking.

“So beautiful”, he murmured as he gently lifted his shirt, contemplating the beautiful complexion, a color that he never stopped loving, the hairs strewed across his chest, the firm muscles and the way the little pink nipples were protruding like rosebuds, “Can you take your shirt off for me, Gavin?”.

Without uttering any objections, the detective obeyed.

He stripped off his jacket and hastily removed the shirt, dropping it on the floor, now prey to the curious noses and sniffling of his cats, who would soon find comfort in sleeping cuddled up on the still-warm fabric.

He was about to shrug off the jacket too, but Nines caught it before it could reach the carpet.

“I-I know this may seem like a strange request, coming from me”, he scratched his cheek, the blue blush faded under his touch, showing the white chassis, “But can you keep it on?”.

Gavin tilted his head, but his smile spoke volumes about his intentions as he went back to wearing the jacket, sleeve by sleeve.

“Do you like to see me wearing your jacket?”, he teased, sliding his index finger down his chin, brushing the neck and now the chest, opening the black shirt as he passed, just to reveal more of the freckled and pale skin, “What else do you like, Nines? I noticed the way you were sniffing me before. You love smelling you on my skin”.

He snickered when he felt a vibration coming from the box.

He caressed the back of the android’s neck and kissed his ear, “You love tracing me with your fingers”, then smiled at his sudden thrill and second vibration, “with your lips”, a third buzz, “with your saliva”.

What a pleasure it was, _edging_ him.

“Or is it the idea that anyone can see the traces of thirium on my fingers after I’ve played with your wires, sweetheart? Do you like that each android in the department, each person that we meet, knows by now that this human is taking special care of you?”

Nines mumbled in a high-pitched noise, whining in static.

“G̵̢̾̓-̸̳n̶̷̳n̴̶̡̳v̴̵̮̜̉̏̏G̶̲̊̊”, he shook under Gavin's palms, and there was little the detective could do but feel proud of the fact that he could reduce an advanced android like him to inconsistence through words alone. Pleasured at the way his hands had become white, he kissed his fingertips one by one, now suckling on them enthusiastically, enthralled by the moans coming from Nines' vocal modulator, wails now barely held back.

If there was something Gavin loved to do, was to show all his care and devotion to his fingers, lick them as if he had to graduate in blowjob-logy, going down on the digits, wetting and drenching them with saliva, swallowing them all the way to the palm and letting them go with a _pop_.

He had done his homework and the right amount of research with private browsing to know that to certain androids the sensors on their fingers and mouth were an immense source of pleasure.

And he wouldn’t deny it: seeing Nines shaking under his tongue got him awfully hard.

He never imagined he’d end up so invested in someone.

And, honestly, that wasn’t the only thing he _not so accidentally_ found out about Nines.

The sweet words, the pet-names and the compliments, seemed to have a magic power over him. And Gavin indeed understood him under that point of view, because they were two peas in one pod.

Copiously drenching his fingers in drool, he took pleasure in seeing the android’s almost painful, pleasure-ridden face, his cheeks as blue as the sea, his wrinkled forehead, his raised brows and the mouth now contracted in a grimace; the buzzing noise coming from the box pure music to his ears.

“Tell me what you want, _sweet thing_ ”, he brushed the android’s glowing fingers along his neck and ran them over his bare abs, under the jacket and now up to his nipples, flinching from the excitement as he felt those same hands pinch and squeezing them, the android’s now white lips reaching his flesh and biting it, sucking on the skin, reclaiming it by twirling the soft pink meat with his tongue.

Gavin bit his lower lip and held a tuft of Nines’ hair, squeezing his neck.

“W̸̹͛a̴̱̭̐͌n̶̠̩͗̈t̷̮̫̔ ̸̘̾ÿ̶̘́o̶̫̾͜͠ư̵̭”, Nines whimpered, voice glitching, not caring about maintaining a semblance of humanity.

Gavin was beaming with happiness.

In the last month, Nines let his voice glitch or break more often than usual. And boy, if that voice got him going.

The excitement and the thrill now just raised as Nines reached for his belt, hastily unbuckling it.

“Oh, someone’s in a hurry today”, he teasingly remarked as he brushed his crouch against Nines’ leg, not hiding his erection.

Another shiver.

“Gavin, I have the impression that you’re enjoying this situation more than you should”, he simply countered as he slid the belt from the belt loops and threw it on the floor, now proceeding to pull down the pants’ zipper. He peeked to Gavin's boxer briefs and couldn’t hold back the sneer of satisfaction at the damp, wet spot of precum that shone through the black fabric, the line of his erection now defined as he pressed his finger on the darker stain, “I’m going to͖͆ ̧͌ȅ̟ḓ̾ge̡̲͑̉ ̖͈̽̓y̘̌o̭̮̅̽u̧̿ ͈̣͙̈́̈́̾s̰̮̄͑ō̯̼͔͂̔̕ͅ ̧̜͕͇̊͆̐͡b̳̪̞̱̎̃̈͝a̢̦̖̰͑̾͌̒d͈̱̺̗̒͋̌”.

The detective just made a show-off of his body, now exposing his groin, meeting the android’s fingers pressing on his clothed erection and brushing the tip of his dick in Nines’ open palm, smirking with contentment.

“Likewise”, he replied now that the android had stretched the elastic band of his boxers and let it snap on his skin, “You are not the only one who knows how to push someone’s buttons here”.

“Oh, I’m a lucky android, then”.

Gavin proudly smiled and looked at the box: “So? Do you have a preference?”.

Nines stroked his back.

“ _Don’t say both_ ”, he thought to himself, holding back a shiver.

He pulled the hem of Gavin’s jacket.

“T̶h̵e̵r̶e̵'̷s̸.̴..”, he cleared his voice, trying to hide the fact that he was blushing again, as if often occurred when he found himself making all too intimate requests, frightened of the possibility of rejection. He knew it would never happen without good reason, but there were times irrationality just had the best on his logical thinking, “There’s one thing I’ve always fantasized about doing I... hm, if I had a penis”.

Gavin tilted his head, immediately curious.

“Okay, babe. I’m listening”, he sat on his thighs and put his arms around his neck, radiantly smiling as Nines opened up to him.

The android’s fingers seemed to be gesturing more than they should, and this time Gavin did nothing to stop him, smiling at his immediate shyness. In their months together as partners and in the last as couple, Nines had gained more confidence, yet there were still times he stumbled upon voicing his needs.

“How can I put it”, Nines averted his gaze, now checking his specifics, “I am a military model and I can lift up to 1,500 kilos of weight”, at the confused look of the detective, he clenched his hands in tension, hoping that the realization wouldn’t scare him off, “It’s about a ton and a half of weight”.

“Jesus H. Christmas, Nines”, Gavin took a sharp breath but his cock was awfully interested in that particular. God, he knew Nines had superhuman strength –he was an android built to fight and probably it was expected to him to adapt to all kind of hostile environments. For all that he knew, he could probably kill a polar bear with bare hands without even flinching and lifting his carcass on his shoulders. Yet he would never have imagined his strength went to that extent. “You’re telling me you could lift a car without working up a sweat? Well, not that you’d be able to but... you get it...”.

“That’s not exactly right”, Nines stumbled, carefully scrutinizing the reactions of the detective’s pupils, “The heavier the weight, the lesser the time I can hold it. If I were to lift a car, I wouldn’t be able to last more than a minute or two. However... the last time you weighed yourself Gavin, you didn’t even weigh 80 kilos. That’s just over the equivalent of 176 pounds”.

He didn’t miss the dilation of his pupils at his words, the greenish irises now swallowed by the intense black of his eyes, nor he missed the way Gavin’s cock trembled in a pulpit against the fabric, wetting it more.

Nines teased the erection pressing its tip, wetting his finger with the damp precum stain, and outlined the detective’s upper lip, brushing his teeth and letting out a moan as Gavin’s greedy and slightly rough tongue licked clean his thumb.

“What are your plans, tin can”, he moaned, letting a strip of saliva hanging from his lip, looking for any form of friction with his dick against the android’s groin.

“Y̢̘̩̠̓̑͛o̯͔͎̓̔͞u͖̹̐̌ ̖̼̹̉͋͠al̗̦̼͈͆͗͛͊͘͟r̹̓ę̮̥͆̓͆ad̛̩͍͎̔̕y͚̹̩͛̌̈ ̺͊kn͈̿ő̰̥̘͝w̳,̹̌ ̩͑G̘͚̩͐͛͘à̫̺̍v͖͌i̙̘͕͆͗̓n̡̝͖̮͙̊̇̑̃̔”.

“Tell me, tin can”, he hissed biting his still wet thumb, sucking it vigorously and bobbing his head over the small digit, “I want to hear you tell me the things you wanna do me”.

Nines trembled.

“Lifting you up i̟̯̤͂͘n̪̊ ̠͂m͙̚y ̦̠̓͝a͂ͅr̔ͅm̩̰̆̽s”, he whimpered as Gavin’s tongue tickled his thumb. He inhaled as he cupped his ass and clenched the naked skin, “I want to hold you and f-".

He stuttered. _By rA9, he seriously ought to watch his mouth. H-He couldn't–_

"Say it", groaned Gavin, now biting his finger as he felt the hand stroking his skin, his cock hardening as he rubbed his balls against the android's leg, "Say what you want".

Nines exhaled.

"Holding you with my hands and f-f̰͠u͍͂ć̳k̢̓i̝̍n̟̒g͋ͅ ̺you ̛̹̫̍u̦̔n͇̾t̹̄ï̫l I make you cum”.

Gavin swallowed, ignoring the fact that his dick had just jerked under the elastic fabric of his boxers, wetting it more than it should have, and he trembled when Nines’ fingers, now wet with his saliva, touched the wet tip again, running with a feeble and delicate touch along his shaft up to the glans, stimulating it and pressing it gently.

“Babe, can you wait one more minute? I want to do something before we start”.

Nines eagerly nodded his head, trying to hide the fact that being in Gavin’s total care for the moment was making him impatient and yet ecstatic. He loosened his pants and slid a hand along the back of his neck, registering the chills at the thought that the chip implanted in his port seemed to have frighteningly increased the sensitivity of all his receptors.

Gavin returned a few seconds later with the harness in his hands and the genital biocomponent. He smiled as he peered at the white dick now illuminated on the tip of the same bluish light that was typical of his fingertip receptors.

Delicately planting his palm on the open black shirt, Gavin kissed his chin.

“Stay seated, darling”, he mouthed the torso and the android trembled under the happy sneer that escaped Gavin’s lips as he felt the hologram skin disappear under his touches. Showing all the love and care he could, he kissed his chest, caressing the thirium pump regulator and tracing its circular outline.

“G-Gav͉̌̑ͅi͎̥̔̊n͖̬̎̐”

“Sssh”, Gavin slowly slid Nines’ already loosened pants along his thighs, purposely brushing the denim cloth on the skin, sniggering at the way the small, almost imperceptible hairs of his legs, seemed nevertheless to maintain a human semblance and rose at the stimulus.

Kneeling, he now kissed his inner thigh, resting the nose on his groin and kissing the aesthetic bulge that was visible from the tight black boxer shorts.

Nines trembled, his ice eyes slowly melting at the sight of the detective between his legs, kissing his pelvis, sinking his nose on the fabric and inhaling his aseptic smell. He shouldn't have felt something, yet he received electrical feedbacks at the touch. He nonetheless trembled under his mouth and almost felt a thrill of physical pleasure coming from those kisses.

Gavin tenderly pulled off his shoes, reverently touching and massaging his calves as he slid the long black socks off, completely stripping him of his pants without ever losing sight of the way the android had completely submitted to his mercy, letting himself be taken care of, squeezing the armrest when the tension and excitement became too much for Nines to handle. He was an android but he had his own limits. Gavin's erotic looks and half-lidded eyes as he undressed him was one of these. The way his thumbs slid under the socks' elastic, his nose hovered over his shin and his fingers now touched his heels, handing his feet and examining the toes.

Nobody was ever meant to see below his face. He was supposed to be a war machine, not a lovable being. Those parts were conceived as mere appendices, means of transportation, a utility to make him run as fast as possible to move between places, as resistant as possible, to save money on manutention.

Yet here there was one human, kneeling beside the machine that he was, kissing the plastic, brushing his sheens, tapping his knees, biting the hard thighs.

He was on edge. He could feel the tightening and stuttering of his thirium pump under each touch and brush of his hands and the desperate need of stimulation coming from the dick still in the box. He... hated to admit that he awfully needed it. Yet, he kind of loved the teasing, though the armrest's fabric was seconds away from ripping under the strength of his pulling.

The buzzing of the dildo sure was a sweet reminder for Gavin’s ears, and if that meant keeping Nines’ on edge as much as possible, then he would have done all he could to give him the best time of his life.

He grazed his boxers and stroked his thighs.

“Take ‘em off for me, love”.

Nines bit his lower lip, savoring a drop of thirium in his own mouth, and silently obeyed, anxiously sucking on his lip as he slid the boxers between his ajar legs. He was still embarrassed by his lack of genitals, although Gavin never stopped watching him, looking at him, longing for him, teasing his own erection and rubbing the edge of his blue jacket against his neck, pulling his chest and swollen nipples forward, just to prove how aroused his body was for him.

“Don’t be afraid, Nines”, he stroked his knee, noting the reticence of the android to open his legs, “I love you”.

Nines grunted and slowly spread his legs, allowing Gavin’s tongue now directly on his pubis. He shouldn’t have felt any stimuli, yet-

“G-Gavin”, yet he shivered, thrills under his insistent kissing, under the expert tongue that kept on titillating his chassis. He drowned his palm in the mass of brown and crisp hair between his legs, scratching Gavin’s scalp with a certain urgency, “G-Gavin, p-p̗̟̾͠l͎̊̃͢ė̹̲͊ą͍̂͛s͙̯̅̋e̢̥͋̚, get the component. I want-”.

He threw his head back against the sofa cushions now that he could feel the detective’s beard tickling his pubis and his fingers cupping his ass and lifting it slightly.

“Stay like that, sweetheart. I’ll get you ready in a sec”.

Hastily taking the harness from the table, Gavin never stopped watching him, getting an eyeful of his spread legs. All of this, _just for him._

“So... phcking beautiful”.

Nines jolted at the detective’s works but he didn’t speak as Gavin set him up, fastening the strap-on. He followed his movements carefully, trying to keep his questions and doubts at bay.

Why Gavin seemed so smooth in his movements?, had he made researches online, in case the possibility of using a strap-on came up?, had he used the item with past partners?

He didn’t want to give in to his ruminations, not in that moment. He was sick of feeling inadequate. And being jealous of what happened between Gavin and people he would never know wouldn't cause anythign but harm to him. It would be irrational and counterproductive.

All that mattered now, was the present.

“There, you’re ready to go”, Gavin playfully tapped his ass, smiling at the obviously firm feeling, and that was enough to bring Nines back to his reality.

He stared at the dick between his legs, scrutinizing it as if it was something alien. Partially, it was– it wasn’t part of his body.

“So?, any impressions?”, Gavin stood kneeling between his legs, one arm resting on his thigh, perhaps as curious as the android at this point. Noting his hesitation, he took his hand, intertwining their fingers, “You seemed impatient earlier to... to do whatever it is you wanted to do”.

Nines stared at his penis, tilting his head, this time almost doubtful.

“I know. It’s just... ...it’s weird. I’m not used to seeing anything here. And, well, it’s also weird to know that for the rest of the humans out there and an impressive multitude of androids, it’s the norm. I had expectations, I thought if I saw something here”, he gesticulated at his component, now frowning, “I don’t know, I thought I’d feel something. But it doesn’t seem to make any difference”.

Gavin rested the cheek on his thigh, nuzzling his beard against the chassis: “Don’t be disappointed, Nines. We’ll work on it. It’s okay if you still don’t know what’s best for you. Do you, hm, want to try it?”.

“What exactly should I do?”

“Pff, seriously?!” Gavin almost laughed in his face, “You’re always sucking my dick like a goddamn vacuum cleaner, you swallow it with the power of a tornado, you squeeze it so hard, sometimes it feels like you wanna rip it off, and now you tell me you don’t know what to do with it?”

“I’m sorry, Detective. Judging by your feedback, I always thought my blowing techniques were– Holy sh–!”

Nines clutched the armrest when he felt Gavin’s lips swallow his dick in one fell swoop, mouthing his erection, the glowing blue tip and the white shaft, engulfing it until he touched his pelvis with the tip of his nose.

“F-F-F... f̵̣̗̈́͌ũ̵͕c̶̣͛k̸͇͖̇!̶̝͇̍͊”, he grunted almost incredulously, quivering, eyes half-lidded as he registered the sensations that were affecting him, overwhelming his HUD one by one, Gavin’s saliva readings on his penis, the thousands of sensors covering his component now picking up on everything: the temperature, the pressure of his tongue –he could almost feel distinctly the detective’s taste buds one by one as his tongue pressed against his length. With the tip, he could almost feel the back of his mouth clenching around his shaft, softly pressing around the silicone.

Thinking that Nines would soon feel the shape of his insides definitely sent a wave of pleasure and anticipation over his circuits.

He opened his mouth, exhaling in a groan the warm air and his hands inevitably went to Gavin’s head, retracing his scars and scratching his scalp.

Gavin withdrew immediately as soon as he felt nails softly carving his head, but his moan was just as shameful, eyes shiny from the effort of taking Nines in his mouth in one-go and cheeks red by the lack of air.

“Look who just cursed”, he smirked as he wiped the dripping saliva with his jacket sleeve, still coughing, “Does it work, then?”.

Nines nodded wordless, LED furiously red, trying to arrange his thoughts.

“Is this what you feel?”, he incredulously asked as he caught his breath, no longer needed now that his temperature returned stable, “Is this the extent of the pleasure you feel every time I do it for you?”.

Gavin sneered and gave an attempted stroke to Nines’ dick, satisfied with the way his erection fitted just perfectly in his hand. With each movement and stroke, Nines seemed to tremble more and his cock vibrated with a certain urgency.

“Yes, tin can”, he increased the rhythm and pressure, proud to see the android quivering more and more, groaning without hiding his glitchy voice and the way he was now meeting his hand’s pace with thrusts.

Gavin pressed his pelvis to hold Nines in his place, constantly checking the colors of the LED, _yellow_ , almost _red_ , and _yellow_ again.

He tightened the clench around the erection, and licking the shaft, he hovered his nostrils over the length, exhaling warming air just to see the android whine and barely holding back a curse. “Look at you, baby. So good”, he repeated now breathing on his glans, teasing and pressing the tip of his tongue against the small semblance of a urethra, “So hard, whining and desperate for my touch”.

“G̭̍-̦̳̻̔͆̊͘͜G͎͉̳̩͋̈̎̄́ͅǎ̱͔̬̍͡v̦͆i̡̡̤̎̑͞n͓̤̳̦͐̋̂̌,̘͌ ̛̩̳̮̄̓ _b̟̾y̩̍ ͉̘̣̮̎͌̃̄r͉͖̝̓͊̑Ą̘̠͂̒́9̹͒_ –̛͎̻̭̓̾!”, Gavin drank in his moans, this time doubling his efforts by stroking and caressing the synthetic testicles, shamefully mouthing and suckling on them, just to see Nines jolt and wiggle even more.

Nines was whining under his ministrations, his skin covered even fewer sections of the body and there was no way his moans and glitches didn’t scare the cats off.

But for Gavin? To him, those groans were blissful. The way Nines, _the stoic android everyone thought him to be_ , was now trying to chase his orgasm by shaking and seeking friction in Gavin’s own hand, was enough to keep his own cock erected without even brushing it.

Gavin squeezed his erection and swallowed it again, slipping his tongue under the shaft, swaying repeatedly up and down the length until he kissed his pelvis with the tip of his nose, bobbing his head restlessly and punctually lifting his eyes to meet the android’s irises, the mouth agape and the restless hands, now on his hair and now caressing his cheeks, definitely feeling the way they repeatedly filled with his cock and sucked on it with each bob of his head.

Nines absolutely couldn’t afford to lose focus. Seeing, feeling and experiencing Gavin in that way was a totally new feeling for him. It wasn’t the same as having his wires touched ( _that was even more intimate_ ), but it was a unique experience in itself.

He could feel everything the detective’s fingers were doing to him, the sometimes gentle and sometimes firm touches on his scrotum, the way his calloused fingertips held and massaged his testicles, the way his forefinger and thumb now held his pelvis still while his taste buds, his tongue and his saliva, molecules, DNA, coffee, everything– just became part of him and of his body extensions.

Gavin was everywhere, Gavin was marking him, he was loving him and giving him a pleasure he could never have imagined possible for an android like himself.

And the way his green eyes looked at him, the way they constantly checked his LED–

All of this was exceeding Nines’ preconstructions.

Gavin seemed to enjoy sucking him off, yet he didn’t once look at his dick. He had just eyes for his reactions, for Nines’ wrecked face, pleasured expression, for his whimpers and shivers.

Nines could just reciprocate his pleasure, squeezing Gavin’s hair back, snatching a moan out of him as he pulled a tuft, scratching his scalp as he felt his skin crawl, playing with his earlobes.

“Gavin... Feels s̥͕̍̅ò͙̹͝ ͔̤̑͞g̘̤̉̽ò̲̙͛ỏ̥̦̾ḓ͎͐̓..”., he moaned when Gavin let his drool hang from his dick, grazing the glans, inhaling sharply as the human’s strong fingers had tightened the base of his shaft again and his lips continued dancing around the tip, fomented by every moan they managed to snatch from his vocal modulator.

Gavin popped off from his dick a second time, tickling his tip once more and licking the hem of his urethra, pressing the tip of his tongue against the little hole. He rubbed the erection against his beard, never breaking eye contact, kissing the length and now tracing his skin to the inner thigh as he stroked his own cock, the damp spot on his boxers now wider.

Nines tried standing up from the couch but as his legs almost went limp, he was welcomed by the spread arms of the detective and his now amused grin.

“Need a sec?”, he ask now holding his hands.

Nines checked his systems. His legs were holding fine, his loss of balance just seemed a side effect of the overstimulation.

“I’m fine”, he stared at the mess of their clothes on the floor and the cats now curled upon Gavin’s shirt, “I won’t lose my equilibrium anymore. Just refrain from touching my port for now, okay? I still don’t know how to correctly handle all this stimulation”.

“Well, there’s not a _correct_ way to do stuff when you’re in bed”

“I’m not entirely sure you’d be fine with hitting your ass on the floor if my hands were to give in like my legs just did”.

“Uh, you have a point there”, he toyed with the white fingers, now kissing the tips, “My sweet thing takes so good care of me. We’re gonna pull an all-nighter here, huh?”.

“No, Gavin, we’re not. Tomorrow we have to go to work”, the android crossed his arms, now looking down on the detective, and he could tell by his sole analysis that his words just made him flinch – _he almost risked to kill his erection_ , “As much as I’d love to, we cannot afford to take another day off work. Someone might get suspicious and last thing I want to do is give my brothers gossip material. I don’t want to be, as you’d put it, the butt of their jokes for skipping work because I engaged in sexual intercourse the night before. There’s space for only one android who can’t keep it in his pants in our family, and that android is definitely _not_ me”.

“We’ll see about that, babe”, Gavin slid a finger under his chin and grabbed his wrist as he felt Nines reach for his boxers.

“Hold them. I’m pretty much at my limit so I’d rather focus on you for now...”, he averted his gaze, now scanning the living room, searching for what, even Nines couldn’t tell, “Huh... did you have a particular wall in mind?”.

“...What?”

Gavin slapped his forehead, now blushing. Of course he had to ruin everything by asking idiotic questions. He could comment on his words and try his best to rephrase what he had just said, but the android’s hands seemed to immediately pick up on his distress – _they always did that_ , and they gently stroked his ears, now tracing their way to his jaw.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to embarrass you; it’s just that your request caught me off guard, that’s all”, as much as his face denied him the possibility to smile, Nines never stopped trying, hoping that his blue cheeks could now convey all the love he felt for him. His gaze drifted to the front door and for a moment, he understood why humans always felt the need to fidget with something when jittery.

He stood silent and shyly pointed at the door, his stare being now met by the detective’s disbelief.

“K-Kinky”, simply stated Gavin, sporting a faint smile, “Looks like I’ll have to keep my voice down. Someone might hear something from the landing”.

Nines didn’t need to voice his thoughts, but a part of him really wanted to outdo himself just to make Gavin sing at the top of his lungs, whine in pleasure even _more than usual_. It wasn’t as if anyone could actually hear him – _not through a sturdy door like that_ , but he liked the idea of the detective being completely unaware of that and almost taking the risk of being heard. If anything, it looked like the thing actually _aroused him_.

He made a note for himself. He should have definitely looked into that later. And there was no way he was gonna miss on that opportunity.

Gavin grabbed him by his neck and gently pulled him to the door. As he leaned his back on the solid wood, Nines stopped him, caressing his shoulder blades under the blue jacket, now sliding his palms to cup and slowly stretch open his ass cheeks.

A moan escaped Gavin’s mouth, betraying his surprise as he felt the fresh air suddenly caressing his scrotum and the contour of his rim, as the soft fingers of the android pressed against his flesh, squeezing his ass cheeks and firmly stroking his butt.

“Put your hands on the door, Gavin”, he hissed in his ear, biting the soft earlobe and from there the helix, now grazing his hair with the tip of his nose and tracing with canines the olive skin, neck studded with moles and sunspots.

Gavin stood with his cheeks spread, now bending over the door for him, hands fisted against the wooden surface and his ass in display. From behind him, Nines couldn’t deny a rush of pride and excitement as he saw his garment on the human, the way the triangle of the uniform kept on glowing.

He touched the fabric, staring at the “RK900” mark embedded on the jacket.

Out of spite, he touched the white and reflecting mark, now interacting with it. Gavin hummed as he felt the hand on his back, but he probably didn’t give it too much thought. Not that he’d be able to see the way the reported model series just shifted from “RK900” to “ NINES’ ”.

He trailed his hands over the jacket, a flush of satisfaction and happiness now flooding his circuits, and he took pleasure in palpating and grasping the rigid and muscular shape of Gavin’s body underneath the uniform. He slid his digits under the jacket and touched the flesh with bare hands.

“I have a confession to make, Gavin”, he whispered, rubbing his erection between the cheeks, groaning in pleasure as his dick contently vibrated, throbbing in response to the stimulation, of the heat coming from the beloved human, “Since the day I was activated, I’ve never had anything I could actually call my own. This jacket you’re wearing was... was the only thing I could actually call mine since no other android would ever own the same one. Yet, when I see you...”.

He held his hips still – _they were so though under his touch, yet it could take so little pressure to break these sturdy bones and that already scarred flesh_ , and kissed his neck as his hands now made the way to his carotid artery, checking his pulse and heartbeat, now faster and faster. He had Gavin hanging entirely from his lips, wrapped around his finger as he calculated what to say.

“When I see you like this, Gavin, there's a part of me that wants to reclaim you, to have you mine”, he hovered his teeth over the soft skin of the neck, licking the sunspots there, “I know it’s a thought... irrational and wrong. Human beings, exactly as androids now, are free and belong to no one but themselves... so I figured what could better express my feelings is the idea of...”.

He left the words hanging for a while, trying to work out what he really meant to say.

“Commitment”, he added as his LED spun blue, “Knowing that no matter what adversities we face, we’ll always come out of them and no matter how many miles will separate us, you will always be my first thought when I exit stasis and my last when I enter it. You will always be my first priority. I’ll... I know maybe it’s soon but... I’d be happy to be yours and I hope you return the feeling”.

_My favorite, precious, sweetest human disaster_.

“So smart, so insecure”, Gavin sighed under his touch, shivering as Nines stripped him of boxers and slid them on the floor, now standing naked under his scrutiny, “How can a perfect being like you really want to stick around with me? I’ve always told you you’re your own person, that’s true, but, well, you’re also my work-partner and my messed-up, perfect, android boyfriend. And by some twist of fate, my brother considers you his son. So you’re... my nephew, too?”.

“Gavin, that’s not what I meant–”

Gavin squinted his eyes at him.

“You know, if I’d known earlier, I’d have prepared down here”, he added, keeping his hands on the door as the android’s expert fingers now spread his ass, his tongue suddenly settling between his cheeks and tentatively licking his rim.

Nines brushed his erection with an index, sliding the fingertip up to his glans, Gavin’s cock now throbbing under his touch, flushed in deep shades of pink, wet and swollen.

“You got this hard just by touching and sucking me off?”, he whispered kissing his rim, licking a stripe of saliva from the perineum to the contracted scrotum, “Watching mewling in spasms under your very hands?”.

Gavin groaned, stuttering under Nines’ ministrations, wailing as his touches just tickled his scrotum, his fingertips hovered over his balls and his palms cupped and then immediately released his testicles, giving a light stroke, a soft massage, just to leave him grasping for pleasure and release after a denied touch.

Nines sure knew how to push his buttons and his stroking, now completely focused on his dick, was enough to make him contract, dripping pre-cum with each pump of his dick and negated orgasm, each stroke a step closer to his climax yet one far away from release.

“G̱̟̅͂ḁ̯̦̈͂͘v̥̫̓̚ī̺͈̯͊͆ǹ̨̛̗̪̆”, Nines’ breath was hot on his balls and he could have sworn he saw the stars when he took his balls in his mouth, now sucking and licking the soft skin.

“Phck...”, he grunted, clenching his fists against the door, seeking release in the android’s hand, trying to thrust in the fist holding his dick still. Nines just stroke him tighter and soon freed his erection to spread his ass.

His hole was clenching, now fully exposed and his hips rocked as Gavin’s cock desperately ached, begging for a much-needed orgasm.

“That needy?”, Nines teased, circling the rim with his finger.

Gavin just indulged him.

“You’ve had a taste of what feels like being sucked off. Don’t pretend you’ve forgotten about that”, he grunted, “’m holding back for you, tin can. Just... just don’t push my buttons too much. I’m not a porn-star and when I jerk off, I usually never finish the videos I start”.

Nines grinned. _He knew_.

Not that he’d ever tell Gavin he knew he still watched porn and jerked off to that. But peeking at the things Gavin enjoyed just allowed him to expand the content of his folder and, _who knew_ , maybe one day it could come in handy.

“Spread your legs a little”, he kissed his ass, prompting his hips a little higher, “You said the fleshlight looked tight. But you look no different”.

“Somebody’s vocal tonight”.

“It’s just easier when you’re not messing with my wires”

“Mmh, you love when my fingers are twisting your insides”

Nines stroked the detective’s firm calves, the muscle tissue so tough, the skin rough. All about his human body was just so perfect.

He lightly lifted the jacket – _so long and big on him, it covered part of his ass_ , and spread his hole with his fingers, licking and stimulating the rim contour as he slowly sank his thumbs into the rosy flesh, elated as he snatched a moan of pleasure and a shudder from the detective.

He let his tongue run circularly around the opening, never really penetrating the inside, gravitating around the rim, copiously wetting the area with drool. Licking a strip up to his sacrum, he spat enough saliva to see the dense thirium-based liquid now slipping to his hole.

Gavin was moaning under his touch, whining and tightening his anus, almost drinking in the liquid now tracing his rim. Nines bit his lower lip and slowly, delicately sank a finger inside, breaching his hole and now working his index, recalling and touching one by one all the spots that usually sent Gavin in ecstasy, always minding to edge him.

The detective leaned his head against the door, scratching and tapping his nails against the wood, rocking his hips against the finger now penetrating him and reaching _all the good spots_ , desperately looking for more friction and stimulation.

Nines squeezed his leg once more and _God if his grip just got fiercer_.

“S̶-̶S̶l̵o̵w̷e̴r̴,̴ ̷G̷a̴v̷i̵n̶”, he hissed in a choked moan, releasing the grip as he realized he had left red marks on the skin, “S-Sorry. It’s just t̟̞̐̚-̢͚͞ţ͓̊̓ơ̬̦͞ȍ̱̳͡ ̧̤̫̄̅̚͢͞m̢̹̍̚ư̧̧̪̻̍̈͒c̳̳̙̆̑ĥ̗̞͔̚̕ ̭͙̈́͗͡ͅstimulation”.

“Okay, babe. S-Slower”, Gavin dumbfounded repeated, trying to ignore his heart almost exploding in his chest and the desperate need to come. Phck, he wanted that as much as Nines, but he didn’t know how much he could hold back before cumming.

He closed his eyes, resting his forehead against the door and trying to concentrate on the android’s voice, on the way his tongue kept brushing and breaching his hole, titillating it as his fingers – _ah, now two_ , kept thrusting in and out of his ass, slick with thirium fluid, artificial saliva. Those slender fingers were now scissoring him as his tongue kept going back and forth along on his perineum, now returning to his balls, sucking and licking, tormenting them–

“Nines–”, he could feel the door damp with his sweat, hair disheveled and messed as he shook his head, his voice now lower and flustered, “Nines, please, if you go on like this, I’ll, ah... Oh phck... I don’t know how much I can hold back”.

Nines quickly monitored his vitals.

He was right. His vitals were skyrocketing and his balls were contracting. He quickly squeezed the tip of his penis in a vice. Gavin almost choked on his breath at the denial of his orgasm once again, grunting as he felt the android’s slender fingers holding his penis in a grip so hard that there was no way on Earth he could cum now.

“Y-you’re so sly, tin can”, he shivered, stuttering and ignoring the heating of his body under the jacket, bringing a finger to his mouth to bite on it.

“I promised I’d edge you”.

“I can’t even be angry at you for this, damn you”, Gavin stared at his penis, the tip red and wet, leaking white drops, “You’re so damn good”.

Nines slowly released his erection from the grip, dick still trembling insistently, looking for any form of denied release.

Frankly, he sort of understood what the detective was feeling, because his cock was vibrating in return, throbbing with desire as well, and by the time he had inserted a third finger into Gavin’s hole he felt he was at his limit as well.

He just didn’t want to hurt him.

Gavin’s hole now almost glistened with his liquid and Nines could feel raw anticipation.

“G̨̾a͔̓v̕ͅi͎͆ň̟”.

At his name, the detective turned, his cheeks red, face sweaty and pupils dilated.

Nines rushed to his lips, greedily tasting and kissing them, bursting his soft tongue against the detective’s tongue, over and over again, in a heated dance and exchange of wet and sloppy kisses. He lined Gavin’s back against the door, applying the right amount of pressure to satisfy his need for _force_ , and he rubbed his erection against Gavin’s turgid and throbbing one, enjoying the feeling of his synthetic skin against Gavin’s organic and very human, their bodies so different yet both aching with the need of the other.

He could guess why Gavin loved to hump his thigh and pretty much enjoyed their intercrural intercourse. The friction against Gavin’s skin was exquisite, strange, feeling clearly different from Gavin’s hands, but still amply welcomed and pleasant. And it was nice indulging in the act of frottage, having his cock now stroked by the detective’s hands and rubbing them together.

He caressed Gavin’s firm hips, quickly tracing his scars as if to confirm they still were there.

Gavin's hands hastily removed his black shirt, undressing him completely.

“Hop on”, Nines urged him, stroking and tapping his ass and pressing his digits in the firm cheeks, asking for his help as he lifted him against the door, “Squeeze your calves around my waist and don’t let me go. I’ve got you”.

Gavin swallowed.

Nines was never so direct when he gave him instructions. At least, not in bed. It only happened at work, in the field, and he never thought it could be so sexy to hear his boyfriend ask him to put all his trust in him in such a precious and protected environment.

He followed his directions, bringing his hands around his neck, nudging the sleeves of his jacket against Nines’ smooth scalp and carding his fingers through his pristine hair.

Nines held him with one hand, and Gavin’s couldn’t deny what a turn-on it was to know that an android like him could actually hold someone literally in the palm of his hand.

Concentrated, Nines aligned with his free hand the tip of his cock towards the hole and slowly penetrated him, keeping the detective’s parameters on his HUD, constantly asking for feedback, pushing and asking if he felt any sort of pain, stopping whenever Gavin inhaled a breath, jerked with his hips or bit his lip.

“G-Go, Nines, don’t worry. Go all the way”, Gavin squeezed his neck tighter, scratching the receding skin, even though he knew he couldn’t mark it or leave bruises or hickeys. Yet, he still kissed him, licking the few visible moles on the remaining soft, human-like skin and enjoying the warmth and the blue light coming from the appearing chassis, the smooth polymers and plastic and the humming coming from his whole body.

He snickered when he felt Nines’ hot exhaled breath on his shoulders. _Ah, he was overheating_. He must have been at his limit too.

This could have been a great moment for a little _payback_. He loved Nines, but he still was a little shit.

As he loosened the grip around his shoulders, he took advantage of the android’s apparent focus to catch him off guard, and he quickly let himself sink on his erection, obviously thwarting Nines’ attempt to be as gentle as possible.

“N͚̯͊͒̐͜n͙̯̿͌n̨̈́ǧ͈ẖ̈,̗̞̼̆͠͡ ̲̪̟̠̈͋͡͝G̰̳̦̲͒̈́̊̕-̥̳͕̓́̓G̨͓̻͔̏͊͘͝a̢͇̓̎v̙̄i̟̎͛͜ņ̻̬̭̀̔̋̔, f-fuck!”, Nines cursed, now clenched by the detective’s insides, wrapping and tightening around him entirely, and his LED shone red as he hurried his hand up on the detective’s torso, holding him up with one palm while the other now intertwined with Gavin’s against the door.

Gavin gazed in wonder at the hand that was holding him, skin completely retracted all the way to a part of his face, leaving white patches along his chin and cheeks. He smiled and tenderly stroke his nape, guiding his nose into his clavicle.

“I- ah... I love you”, he whispered to his ear as he caressed his hair. It didn’t matter if they weren’t moving yet. Nines was inside him and, judging by his sudden stillness and heavy breathing, by the way the trembled and yet desperately held onto their joint hands, he had lots to process.

His skin kept on receding in patches and there was nothing he loved more than the way his bones almost felt like cracking under Nines’ white and blue grip. He wouldn’t hurt him – _he knew that_. That pressure, was just a yarn of untangled feelings, and all he could do now what reciprocating that seize, with as much force as possible, to tell that silly android that he was here, that there was nothing to be afraid of.

“You can turn the skin off, if you want”.

Nines trembled at his words.

It wasn’t as if Gavin didn’t know what it meant to do that.

When was the last time he was _entirely_ naked?, stripped of his skin? During his testing phase? Not a positive memory, as far as he could remember.

Gavin already told him so the month before, the first time they made love. Nines didn’t grant his request though, pulling an excuse just to avoid any sort of judgment.

Of course Gavin didn’t want to force him, but he really wanted Nines to feel comfortable in his own skin. Or, well, chassis. He wasn’t certainly prepared for the uncertain, almost terrified hiss of the android, as his hologram skin stopped glitching and revealed the white up to his shoulders.

“Promise me...”, his voice was so soft, so frail, so vulnerable and terrified that Gavin knew if Nines could cry, he would have done so now, “Please promise me you won’t...”

_Be scared._

_Hate me._

_Realize your mistake. Leave me. Abandon me._

_Throw me away like Cyberlife did._

_Realize what I am._

_A machine. A machine, created to obey orders-_

_Horrible. Nothing worth loving--_

“I won’t hurt you, Nines. In any form”, Gavin tenderly kissed his lips. Nines was thrusting softly, gently inside of him, as if he feared he could break, shatter that fragile human in his very hands, “And I won’t love you less if you show me what I already know you are”.

Nines kissed his neck but was surprised at Gavin’s attempt to meet his grey eyes.

Gently, he took hold of his hand and led it towards his LED. Gavin softly pressed the circle and gasped in amazement when he saw it glow red and yellow as the skin began to retract from the face and now the rest of the body, staring in wonder at the way everything had suddenly turned white and gray. There was no trace of the soft hair on which his fingers sank until seconds earlier, now replaced by sturdy, smooth plastic and polymer chassis, and now he could see the junctions between his torso and arms, the connections for the optical units and the difference in color between his chin and jaw and the rest of his face.

Nines had his eyes tightly shut, closed, and his lips pressed as if he feared his world and certainties might collapse the moment he opened his lids again.

But Gavin simply smiled at him, stroke his ears with both hands, trusting the android that was holding him, now brushing the audio processor input behind his ears.

“Nines”, he stroked his cheeks and, holding his face between the rough palms, he caressed his eyelids, now devoid of lashes, gone with the hair and skin, as well as the brows, “I’m still here, dipshit”.

Nines obeyed.

“Won’t you leave me because I’m ugly?”

“You’re just a phcking android”, Gavin rested the forehead against his, choking a laugh, and kissed him as if to seal a promise, “My phcking, lovely robo-boyfriend. Ro... Ro-boyfriend, whatever. Don't be an idiot”.

He jolted as Nines held him tighter, now feeling a clear hiccup on his shoulder.

Nines was trembling in his arms, never letting go, wiping his nose on his neck and incessantly shaking his head.

“Thank you”, his words were inconsistent and trembling, but the strength he was now embracing the detective oozed all the love he couldn’t convey with his voice alone, “I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you. No matter how much I have to say it to you. Thank you”.

“There, there. I’ve got you, tin can. I’m here for this”, Gavin kissed his nose and laughed in an attempt to break the sudden tension, “Now, I don’t want to spoil the mood or anything but, hm, can we move? My ass is gonna turn sore if we don’t do anything”.

Nines startled.

He reached his LED but Gavin stopped his hand: “Leave it, baby. Let me see all of you. We’re one thing right now, no need to hide”.

“You’re something else, Gavin”, Nines trembled, kissing his fingertips and intertwining their hands again, gently resuming his thrusts, “I may as well tell you that... ngh...”, he bit his lip, sinking in his body, content with the groan of approval he had just snatched from the detective, “Ah... That I think of you as... as my precious organic living being. And that I love.̰̈.͙͐.͙͒ ͚̯͌̅h̜̯̅̅n̈͟n͉h̼̩͛͛.̬̘̔.̯̃͋ͅ.͎͆ ͖̿ȩ̊ȃ̳̙̈c̳͈̒̓ḧ̹͍ ͎ͅṃ̗̓̊ő͇l̗̿ĕ̙̺̑c̞̀u̼̚l̛̩e̤͌ ̖͋that makes up your body. Each...”, he gave another thrust, wrinkling his forehead and chasing the pleasure as Gavin tightened around his dick in response, “So... so g̩͑͑͢ǫ̹͌͋͌͟o̰̹̒͠d͔̼̹͆̋͒.̟̪̩̆͑̕͞ͅ..”.

Gavin chuckled.

“good..?”., he groaned as he felt Nines sinking again, this time purposely trying to hit his prostate, and he couldn’t hold back a whimper of pleasure, baring his neck for the android to bite and kiss it, “I suppose, ha... I suppose I have to take that as a pet-name, right?”

“Absolutely”, Nines grinned into his neck, licking it and now sinking his canines, catching onto Gavin’s instructions, giving him the hint of pain he previously asked for, never ceasing on pushing and thrusting, drenching in the pleasure of their bodies’ heat, in the enveloping and intense tightness of Gavin’s insides, answering in static to his moans.

His fingers and the hundreds of sensors scattered along his phalanxes already allowed him to trace Gavin’s insides, but _that_ experience went beyond his preconstructions, was entirely something else. Gavin was hanging completely from his hands, from his lips, back glued to the door, body spasming and melting with each of his thrusts and touches.

He was contracting, trembling with every push and his hands were now scratching the back of his neck looking for his port as they did nervously whenever the pleasure became overwhelming and Gavin’s erection was back to soaring, pressing against his chassis, against his stomach, leaving traces of DNA and precum on his frame.

There wasn’t part of his body that wasn’t marked by Gavin’s fluids, and his audio processors absorbed his moans like sponges. Nines felt his circuits on fire, his excitement building up and he rocked his hips back and forth, fomented by Gavin’s sweet moans, so vocal that he seemed on not giving a care in this world if someone actually heard him over the door.

“N-Nines”, Gavin eyes were half-lidded, “Nines, Nines, c-cum–”.

His wail once again died in a choke in his throat as the android’s hand squeezed his dick again, denying his orgasm.

“Ooooh p-phck!”

“N̝͞o͙͚̎t̘͞ ̼͍̄̄ŷ̗e̜͐ť̢,͙̓ ͕̺̓G͚̒a̢͞v̡̔i̹̣͊̏n͍͉̍̂”, hissed Nines, putting up an incessant rhythm, increasing the pace and hitting his sweet spot with each thrust, feeling the rushing of pleasure as he sank in his body.

Gavin tilted his head back against the door, calves pressing against the android’s back and squeezing Nines’ dick: “Phck you! Why- why do you keep touching that point?!”.

“Because....”., Nines frowned, pushing harder and hitting his prostate a second time, as if to prove his point, as the detective melt in his hands, words now inconsistent whines, “Because you̫͆ li̥͂ke̦͘ ̄͢i͔̼̅̔t̗̑.̠͞ ̰̙͋̋B̜̙̈́̑ḛ̆ca̟̿u̗̗͍͒͗̃ṣe̼͐ ͓͘I͍̗̾͠ ̙͚̏̊lí̲k̜͙̬̽͠͞ě͇̥̞͇̒̑̄ ̮̯̱͉́͐̓͝ĩ̭͙̝̠̒͝t”.

Gavin grinned.

“Two can play at that game”.

“Hm?” Nines didn’t have the physical time to question his intentions.

When he felt the fabric of the jacket’s sleeve brush over his shoulder and Gavin’s rough fingers reach his port on the nape, he offered no resistance, opening it for him.

“You’re an over-achiever, you know that, Gavin?”, he grunted, keeping hold of the detective’s erection, occasionally giving it two or three tentative strokes just to leave it alone seconds before reaching the climax.

Gavin just caressed the edge of the port, lingering his fingers around it the same way the android’s did with his rim, without actually touching his insides. “Oh, I know that, tin can”, he mumbled as he eagerly kissed his neck, meeting his thrusts and bumping on his dick, searching any form of friction with Nines’ stomach with his erection, “But I’m bullheaded. I’m not giving up without a fight”.

“We’re making love, Gavin”, Nines tried his best to laugh it off. Luckily for him, his partner always recognized the hint of amusement in his voice, regardless of how much atone it sounded, “Why everything... ngh.. _damn ̞̆ẏ̬ou̢͞’̡͒r͓̺̊̇ẹ̥͗̒ ̨͒ti̡̱͋̚gh̛̖̤̥̾̏̕͜ẗ̪̪͕͚́̂̆͘_ ”.

“ _Ha_.... you said something, love?”, Gavin teased him, clenching his rim around Nines’ erection, satisfied with himself, with the way the android’s voice kept on glitching. He never got Nines to be _that_ vocal. He wanted more of that, more of him _losing control_ , voicing all his thoughts.

Nines bit the inside of his cheek, embarrassment reaching his white cheeks and averting his gaze.

Gavin was doing that on purpose.

The way his silicone cock shifted inside Gavin and his balls hit his ass and slapped it with each push was sublime and his sensors went crazy with every clamp of his insides around it. Gavin swallowed his erection and there was a hint of challenge in the way he hardly and energetically refused himself to be stretched, opposing resistance by tightening his insides around him in a vice almost intoxicating.

For being his _first time_ with that kind of new component, Gavin was giving him one hell of an hard time. He was literally giving him his payback for edging him.

Not that... _he could always try to lower the sensibility to last longer_.

He could have done that, if the detective’s sly fingers didn’t dive directly inside him, now mercilessly teasing his wires, fingertips hovering slightly and with feather-touch over his blue wire, thrusting it with the green one, matching it with the speed of Nines’ own thrusting inside his body.

Every push of Nines corresponded to a touch of Gavin along his wires, a caress, a tug, a rub between two wires. Gavin did indeed his homework because, in less than one month, he already knew which wire caused a certain reaction. And he knew perfectly which buttons to push to make Nines moan and frantically lose control, have him glitching under his fingers.

“G-Ga̰͆v̤̼̑͝i͔̓ń̘͍̮̺̽̍̕”, Nines trembled, feeling his insides being rubbed, quivering and chasing the intense pleasure, receiving impulses from every part of his own body, ignoring the pending requests that came from his cock, now storming his HUD and asking him to allow the orgasm.

He negated the function.

He wanted to see more of Gavin.

More of his disheveled expression, of his teary eyes, more of his moans, of his wrecked whimpers as he almost rode his cock despite being suspended, held by his mere hands, more of the way his firm calves were pressing his ass against his hole, clenching, tightening around his shaft.

“Nines–”, Gavin relentlessly kept of fingering his port, drinking on Nines’ whines and static, scratching the wires, pulling them, kissing his neck as he felt the android stutter under his hands, “ _Love you..._ _love you_ ”.

Nines gave a quick monitoring to his vitals, ignoring the way his HUD was seconds away from crashing.

_BPM: 109, quickening and deeper breathing routine, sweating, rising oxytocin, dopamine and vasopressin levels, impending muscle contraction_.

Gavin was at his very limit.

“L̤̿ov̺e̼̅ ̩̔y̙̍ó͓u ̢͌t̺͠o͚̿ö̡”, he sank his fingers on the firm yet soft flesh of his ass, speeding the rhythm of his pushes, pounding his hole and feeling every drop of Gavin’s sweat on his naked chassis, every trace of hormones released now marking him the same way he was now doing with the human, kissing him, squeezing him, pulling his name from his lips with every push, “F-... you're so tight! I'm... ngh, h-hold tight, G͉͗av̼̾”.

Gavin whimpered and as he embraced his neck, gulping as Nines’ hand clenched around his cock and started keeping up and matching the pace of his thrusting as he jerked him off. Gavin hastily slid his fingers inside the port, reciprocating the pleasure, pulling the wires with each thrust and rubbing them together with each movement of Nines’ wet hand, slick with precum. He sank three of them inside in one go, now pressing on his connected chip.

“So ̱̔t̘̀iḡ̫ht͇̽–”, Nines shivered, desperately trying to delay his orgasm for another second, but as he felt Gavin’s insides clench around his cock and his dick throbbing in his grip, he could no longer oppose to the impending orgasm.

“Let go, Nines”, Gavin whispered, and that enough to almost send him off the edge, “Cum for me”.

Gavin’s seducing voice in his ear was now just a distant, far away echo. He couldn’t delay anymore and he clenched his fingers on Gavin’s ass as he pushed one last time inside him, coming by those fingers toying, twirling, rubbing and pulling his wires, mercilessly fucking his port. So wrapped up in his pleasure, he smashed his lips against the detective’s, biting and frantically jerking him off, drinking all the moans and whimpering coming from him, masturbating his dick, milking it to the last ooze of semen.

“There so much of it...”, he murmured as he kept on jerking him off, hands sticky with Gavin’s release, so white and dense, thick and hot, satisfied with the way the detective continued on contracting and spasming on his cock, his whole body shivering and quivering.

He could feel the effects of the orgasm as the electric impulses kept running on his wires, deep to his core.

Gavin rested his damp head on his shoulder, his chest heavy with each breath. He smiled when he realized Nines was still so caught up in his pleasure that he didn’t even understand what just happened.

“‘s not just mine”, he mumbled as he caught his own breath, cupping the android’s face between his hands and meeting his lips.

Nines seemed confused by his admission, at Gavin’s grin now that he had restored his human appearance. He was still inside his body so he couldn’t have realized it yet.

“What...”, his LED spun yellow as he computed. Nonetheless, he kept on holding him up, lifted from the floor, still between his hands.

Gavin smugly grinned: “Come on. So smart and you can’t even put two and two together?”.

He jerked his spent dick and picked with his fingers a drop of the semen dripping from his sore hole. Locking eyes with Nines, he licked it off from his thumb, making a show of his tongue and lips slurping on the finger. Only then did he proceeded on kissing the android.

That was enough to catch Nines off guard.

“H-How”, he stuttered, almost incredulous, analyzing the sample, “H-How is it possible that it has my thirium composition”.

“Well, the wonders of technology. 'm not the one you should ask though”, Gavin giggled as he kissed his neck, beard scratching the skin, “You okay there?”.

Nines stalled and now slowly exited his body, almost surprised by the dripping semen that was now sliding along Gavin’s thighs, a compound made of water and thirium that was indeed labeled as coming from his model and serial number. His thirium pump jumped under the though.

“H-Hold still”, he hushed him as he spread his legs wide open.

“Oh, God, you’re not doing it–”, Gavin felt his tongue now sucking his hole off and clean. He tugged his hair, pressing his hands into his head, “Oh, phck! You're doing it. You’re really sucking it out of me– phck!”.

“Good?”, Nines sank his nose between his cheeks, licking the strip of semen dripping from his thighs directly up to his ass, and tickled his hole mercilessly, kissing it and blowing hot breath on the entrance.

Gavin’s shiver was enough of an answer.

“You keeping the chip?”, he asked ignoring the fact that Nines was now proceeding on mouthing and sucking off his spent and half-hard cock, “Oh why you’re so... phcking... hungry for it”. He dug his fingers in his hair. “Overachiever my ass. You’re the overachiever, you phcking... owww Gooood...”.

Nines swallowed his dick in one go and his nose was now choking in Gavin’s curly pube hairs. His tongue was so soft as it played with his shaft and licked clean his foreskin.

“Please, tell me you’re not... planning on testing out the fleshlight”, as they locked eyes, Nines just grinned and loudly popped off of his dick. He even had the guts to bite his lips.

“Not tonight”, he said as he tugged at his blue jacket and he suddenly stood up, holding the detective in an embrace, “But... maybe soon?”.

“Soon?”, Gavin cracked a laugh, “I mean, I’m okay with whatever you want to try out. Just surprised that you’re so eager”.

Nines scratched his nape, imitating the way Gavin did when he got nervous.

“Hey, n-no, I’m not judging you! Don’t, I mean, I’m not kink-shaming you, I’m just genuinely curious. And worried. I can't take another phckin’ tonight. I’m almost forty, no matter how hot you are, I’m not a teenager anymore, if you get what I mean”

“It’s just that”, Nines seemed more at ease now that he heard and felt Gavin’s reassurance, “I was never supposed to experience all of that. And now that I did... I liked it v̦̈́͟e͍͋ȓ̦̊͟y̪͒ ̪̇mu͕̕c͖͉͗͒h͢͝. I still love when you play with my wires– that actually made me... reach the climax, if you will concede me. But I’m still curious to know what regular androids can feel with their components. And now, though I feel some contempt in saying that, thanks to your brother, I can”.

Gavin ruffled his hair, “Got it”, he said, clearing his voice in a cough.

“Your voice is sore”, pointed out Nines, in a smirk.

“Yeah, and yours is still glitchy, tin can”, remarked Gavin.

Nines tugged his harness.

“Can..”., he scratched his neck, “Can I take it off? It’s kind of uncomfortable when I’m not using it. I can’t even understand how you humans can go around, sit and manage to do your chores with something between your legs”.

“Babe you can do whatever you want. Your dick, your choice. I’m not here for that”, he pointed at his thirium pump, smiling as the skin receded, revealing the blue glistening of the biocomponent, “I’m here for this”.

“You want my regulator?”

“Err... no, I mean, oh phck, this isn’t your heart”

“...No, Gavin. This _isn’t_ my heart. It’s called a regulator for a reason, you know”.

“Don’t get smart with me, prick”

Nines grinned and, before the detective could finish his sentence, he took him on his own arms: “We’re gonna do some android anatomy study, someday”.

Gavin held onto his neck and scratched his beard against his skin.

“Alright professor. What about now?”

“Shower. And then bed. You’re salty with sweat, dirty with release and absolutely in need of self-care. And no, don’t look at me like that, we already discussed this: we can’t afford to get another day off without the precinct thinking that we’re skipping our job to indulge in sexual conducts”

“Yeah”, Gavin eloquently rested his head on his chest, relaxing in the android’s body heat, “I’m salty all the time by the way. Don’t need sweat for that”.

“You must feel so smart with these puns”

“I do. And I love the way you keep on practicing your sarcasm skills”.

Nines stood in the hallway, looking at the detective in his green irises: “Yes, I’ll have you know I have mixed feelings about this. It seems like the pupil is really surpassing the teacher”.

“You see? This means then one day, by the same logic, I’ll know even more than you about android anatomy”, grinned Gavin.

“No, you won’t. You don’t belong to logic Gavin”, he grunted as he lift him down on the bathroom tiles. He took two long towels and put them on a chair by the bathtub. He really loved the fact that androids were waterproof. That meant he could enjoy the heat of Gavin’s body even in water. And actually, he was looking forward to next summer, just to enjoy the ocean water with his favorite human.

He smirked when he saw Gavin now making a silly showoff of his abs and body, hands on his hips now tracing the thin layer of fat on the stomach and his pectorals.

“Take a picture, it’ll last longer”, the detective teased, pinching his nipples.

“Oh, you last long already”, Nines answered point-blank, now enjoying Gavin’s laugh and the way his arms just grabbed his neck to bring him closer and kiss him.

Nines checked the water temperature, and when he deemed it warm enough, he sat inside the tub, now waiting for Gavin to dip his toes and the whole body under the water. The detective’s back was now sticking to his chest, accommodated between his legs, nape resting on his collarbone. Nothing could have made him hum contently and satisfied more than that.

“About the fleshlight...”, he softly passed the sponge over Gavin’s body, covering the skin with soap and now rinsing it with his hands, retracing the red marks he left on the neck and the thighs. The detective’s hands were resting on his knees and kept on sliding over his thighs, washing them with the soapy water.

“You have any idea?”

Nines embraced him from behind and kissed his collarbone: “Why don’t you surprise me?”.

Gavin was so comfortable with his nudity, with his absence of genital components. He would have never imagined his pre-constructions could turn reality. Or that he could have everything he wanted without sacrificing something. Experiencing the pleasure of having “human” sex with Gavin without renouncing to the possibility of doing it the “android” way.

Gavin’s wet hair stuck to his frame. He smiled when he felt his playful hands now trying to lather his own. He didn’t even put up a fight when the detective, now sitting in front of him, started playing with his hair and making different hairstyles out of it.

“Too bad you don’t have a mirror to see yourself”, he giggled as he admired his ultimate creation.

“No, I don’t have a mirror but I can clearly see my reflection on your pupils”

“Oh, shit, right. Damn, it’s unfair!”

Nines tilted his head, now examining the picture of what Gavin did to his hair. He touched them quietly, so he couldn’t ruin the... hairstyle, if that _was even a hairstyle_. His hair was shaped in a Mohawk. And Gavin didn't seem content with that, because now he just stretched his arms to mess up with his haircut again, pulling the strands, tuft by tuft, to straighten them individually.

“Here! Like a Super Sayan!”.

Nines tilted his head, admiring the work Gavin pulled on his head. Oh, he got the reference. He touched his LED and curled his mouth corners as much as he could, now watching Gavin widening his eyes in utter surprise.

“You can change your hair color too?!”, he shouted incredulous, “No way, now you really look like a Super Sayan! Damn, you..”., touching his blonde hair, he gulped as the color now shifted into different hues, now red, then pink, blue and chocolate again, “Whoa. That’s... that’s cool shit. You all can do that?”.

“Yes”

“So, wait. Why you never changed hair color or, I don’t know, grew a beard?”

“Well, I don’t like the idea?”, he played with his own soft and bubbly strand, “I love this color. And I enjoy your stubble. I don’t need another. For now, I mean. Maybe someday I’ll.. I don’t know, make my hair grayer? Just to keep up with your aging. Or add a wrinkle or two, more moles. I’ll ask Kamski to help with the customization and... Gavin?”.

Analyzing the human, he quickly realized the way his heart beat faster in his chest.

“Gavin, you’re... crying?”

“Shit”, he quickly wiped his eyes with the wrist, covering his trembling lips with his palm, “Shit, you really plan to stick that long with me, tin can. You really mean it”.

Nines frowned, now strongly embracing his smaller frame, his body so frail yet so tough between his arms.

“Yes”, he whispered in his ear, “As long as you’ll allow me. I’d be thrilled and overjoyed by the possibility of spending my entire lifetime beside you, aging together. I know that I don’t have to try to be human for you, but... I want to do that to feel closer. Just as you tried to meet my needs and accepted me as an android being”.

Gavin huffed, crying on his collarbone as he peppered it with kisses.

“Maybe..”., carding his fingers through Gavin’s wet and soapy hair, he rested his head on the bathtub frame, enjoying the closeness of his hot body, though the water was slowly becoming cold, “Sometimes I pre-construct that maybe one day you’ll become Lieutenant and... I know it may look silly but... maybe I’ll become something more than a detective too and together we’ll put away enough savings to go on a vacation or have a bigger house to take in more cats if.. if you’re willing to, of course... and maybe we’ll go to the sea, to amusement parks, to make excursions on the mountains or to travel the world or sit on the porch of our future house and enjoy our time together, just like humans do...”.

He stalled, now that Gavin breathing had lowered.

“Gavin?”

“‘m listening”.

Nines held him. The water was now getting colder. Gavin was sniffling, voice raw and sore: “As long as you stick around, I’m okay with everything”.

“Even with a family reunion once or twice a year at our place?”, suggested the android.

Gavin laughed, now rinsing his hair from the soap: “Yeah, dipshit. A family reunion. A regular, plain, family reunion. Just us, Connor and Sixty and their dysfunctional boyfriends, Lij, Tina, Chloe and your mum. Your regular half-android and half-human family. With your brothers destroying the house, David and Hank fighting over who has the best boyfriend or rambling about their stupid Millennial problems, Chloe giving Tina relationship advice and your mum probably asking Lij for an alcohol mod just to drink herself in a stupor. Can't wait for our next absolutely traditional family reunion”.

Nines hummed in approval.

“Yes. Me too”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're done! **Or not?**  
>  I'm not forgetting about the "cylindrical thingy", don't worry! It'll feature in an upcoming story (yup, a sequel, probably a one-shot or 2 chaps max), don't worry!  
> If you read until here, thank you very, very much!  
> Thanks for the comments, kudos and bookmarks, it really means a lot to me! I'll see you all in the next update!  
> Steve out!


End file.
